Dark Horse: REWRITE!
by DorugaruAtisuto
Summary: I've been living in blindfolded, ignorant darkness. That is, until that Morinozuka kid came along. Then my life did a 180 and now I'm suppost to kill him? I don't even really know that damn guy! What's more, I'm a prince? Dammit. Things are just getting worse and worse, aren't they? MorixOC xOC  Yaoi Rewritten version - Warnings Inside, Read at own risk
1. Dark Horse

_Warning: Language, Future Violence, Yaoi(BoyxBoy)_

_Disclaimer: Hatori Bisco owns 'Ouran Highschool/Koukou Host Club'. If I owned it, Kyoya would have his glasses off less in the series! :3_

_A/N: This is a REWRITE! If you would like to read the original crappy one, add 's/6766395/1/' to the end of 'fanfiction(.)net' without, of course, apostrophies and parenthesis._

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><p>'The night brings horror, bloodshed, and eternal suffering. But all those have saved me from a horrible death... For now.<p>

I will never be _truly_ safe.'

_1. ThE dArK hOrSe_

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><p><em>Sweetheart, wake up.<em>

_**Five more minutes, Mom...**_

A light chuckle and warm, delicate hands softly shaking my lying form before moving up to run through my firey red spikes. _Ryu, it's quite late. Come now, you wouldn't want to upset your dear mother by disobeying, would you?_

A snort of humor I only vaugely registered as my own. _**Mm... I'm up, I'm up.**_

My eyes snapped open and my head whipped around wildly, searching for that kind voice, those gentle hands, both of which I yearned for. Unfortunately, my position high in the trees where I had fallen asleep granted little balance, and with my jerking motions, my body teetered off the slim branch. And onto the hard packed dirt. Woopee.

Only a grunt was heard as I landed none too lightly on my left hand, bending it almost completely backwards. Hissing as a dull pain began to settle in my wrist and spread throughout my hand, I held it gently and began to walk off in the direction that I thought was where I had initially started walking.

Of course, that was just a dream. _I have no parents._

Sticking my hands in my torn slacks pockets, my eyes traveled upward to the darkening bluish-purple fading sky, stars beginning to slowly replace the clouds from noon. The mix of oranges, reds, and yellows contrasted prettily with the blue and purple evening sky. I hummed as if in agreement, the sun slowly sinking below the horizon, the pale, cresent form of the moon rising on the opposite side of the multicolored expanse to replace it.

I tilted my head at the everyday occurance and thought of a different senario. Instead of a natural, daily event, what if it had to do with celestial beings? I grinned behind my black, white, and grey plaid scarf and nodded, happy with what my imagination was conjuring up.

_Ifrit, the sun god, and his younger twin sister, Selena, the moon goddess, were born on the last and the first days of the year, respectively. But Ifrit wasn't satisfied with simply being the eldest. No; he wanted to be king, he wanted to rein over the people and beat down on them with fire. Selena, on the other hand, was kind and merely wanted to provide beauty, only feeling the need to control what was necessary. Their father-_

Wait, what was that? The forest... Someone was in the forest. Shoving the story I'd been thinking up to the farthest recesses of my mind, my feet began flying over the ground before my brain registered I was actually moving.

And now I could hear another sound: the thundering of a horse's hooves. I was by now desperate to pick up speed to get away, praying I was concealed enough in this blanket of darkness. I couldn't afford to be caught!

Oh, wait, you don't know _why_ I'm here, in a battered, torn, dirty tuxedo, with a fucking scarf, which is now whipping me in the face repeatedly while I run. No, it's not that I hate scarves, it's just... Y'know what? Just read this...

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><p><em>Yeah, so I'm running because I was suppost to be engaged to some crybaby, girly-girl, bitchy brat named Arashimizu Megumi, even though I absolutely hate every one of the marrige candidates my parents had shown me before they decided on Megumi. Not like a ever had a choice.<em>

_Anyways, there's no way in _hell_ I'm going to marry her!_

_My adoptive parents are more like demons than angels for adopting me without my twin sister, Ayano(A/N: This is a rewrite, therefore Kurami[me] will not be in this story. Damn, this will be difficult...) and expecting me to be forever thankful, kissing up to them, doing whatever they want to force on me. Feh. I mean, how stupid _are_ these people?_

_I was forced into such a princely position that the attention I had once, though however short-lived, had accepted very graciously, now openly loathed, had become overwhelming. Everyone knew that. Everyone except my 'parents' and Megumi and her family. They were so oblivious!_

_And today, I was stuck in this damn monkey suit, and prodded with meaningless questions. I left before the vows were to be said, skipping the luncheon and taking the chance to escape. Now I was tired, slightly injured, and hungry since I hadn't eaten since breakfast. Even during the meal I hadn't been able to eat more than a couple bites before I was whisked away for tuxedo fittings, a last-minute wedding rehersal, and a run-down._

The whole thing was hell. And now, with men from the 'family' I came from chasing and tracking me down, I was going to be sent back. Not to mention given a whole crapload of punishment.

The muscles in my legs were straining, my lungs and throat burning, my vision beginning to shake around and blur. But still, with a final push of the last of my energy, I sprinted forward...

Only to trip over an outreaching tree root.

My ankle twisted in an almost grotesque angle, and I screamed, the pain too much to bear in silence. Immediately, the hoofbeats stopped, and I was reduced to very unmanly whimpering to allow me to be a little more attentive to my surroundings.

I almost didn't see it. The near black mare almost completely hidden in the shadows of the woods, her one visible eye glinting through the darkness. Upon her back was a lanky rider, with small, jet black spikes protruding from behind a black and white theatrical mask placed neatly over the man's face. He couldn't have been more than seventeen or eighteen, at the most.

We stayed like that for a while, just staring at the other. My frightened maroon eyes locked determinedly with cool onyx eyes that stared back - almost boredly, even. Neither of us moved, the only sound coming from my harsh panting and the mare's occasional snort.

The boy held his hand out and I hesitated. What if this was a trap? Would he take me back? His hand raised slightly before dropping to its open palmed position once again. If I took that hand, would I regret it?

With a soft sigh, the boy slid off his horse and toward me, making no noise, as if hovering over the ground. I tried to scoot back on my butt away from him, but instead ended up causing further pain to my sprained - or possibly broken - ankle.

I groaned as it bent again, and glared up at the stoic, emotionless teen with tearing eyes and lips pulled back in a snarl. "What do you want?" I hissed, bearing some kind of resemblance to a reptile - a dragon, maybe.

The onyx eyed boy simply met my raging eyes with his own, face still relaxed. Was his face broken or something...? "You're hurt," he said quietly. I didn't notice his hand reaching out as my face went slack and stared dumbly at him.

Woah. Deep voice ya got there, bud.

His previously unnoticed hand became known as it very, very gingerly prodded my ankle. I pulled my leg up and away from him, unconsiously trying to make myself smaller.

"Stop that!" I growled, slapping his hand away. In response, the stranger lifted me up bridal style and I panicked, thrashing around. A strong arm pinned both of my own arms to his well-muscled chest, so I reverted to using my uninjured leg to beat against his sides. A tired sigh escaped the boy's lips as I continued to squirm.

"I'm going to drop you if you keep doing that," he warned. Reluctantly, I gradually stilled, my fingers and legs twitching from time to time, just absolutely _itching_ to hit him. But I seriously didn't want to fall again. "Good."

Walking toward the now grazing horse, I gazed up at the potential savior _or _captor. His chiseled features would make any girl drool - not that _I _would. I'm not gay, alright? Not that I have anything _against_ gays, just... _I'm_ not one.

Placing me on his horse, the boy stared at me. Even if it was courteous, I didn't ask his name. I didn't _want_ to know. I didn't want to know _anything_ about this boy. I only glared. Glared and tried to show all my feelings, even though I knew it wasn't enough. Nothing was never enough.

"What's your name?" he rumbled. I continued to silently glare petulantly at him, ending up staring at the back of his head as he got on the horse.

"Hold on to my waist," he commanded.

"Never," I hissed.

"Then sit in front of me."

"_NO._"

"You're going to fall off."

I scowled childishly. "No, I won't." And then... I was proved wrong.

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><p>We rode through the woods for hours, after I had screamed my head off for him to GET OFF THE DAMN ROAD AND INTO THE WOODS like a stubborn brat until he shut me up by making the horse jump without warning. Needless to say, I was a little more than just <em>shaken up<em>. My head hurt for a _long_ time after that tree...

When we arrived into a clearing where a comfortable looking cottage stood. Hoping my grin looked cocky, I tried to gracefully get off the mare... Only to fall off.

"See!" I crowed, "I didn't fall off that many times!"

The boy smirked behind his mask. How do I know? I just... do, I guess. "Six or seven times is plenty."

Hey, it's still a record. I usually fall off more than that. And I usually break or sprain something, too.

"What-fucking-ever," I huffed.

"Here, let me help you get inside." the boy suggested.

"I can do it myself!" I snapped, leaning away from his reaching arms. "Get away from me!"

He pulled back and sighed, crossing his arms. "Fine. Do it your way." Walking over to the cottage, he threw over his shoulder "Let me see you _walk_ over here, then."

My lips pulled back in a snarl. "Okay then!" I yelled, "I can do it myself! I don't need - OW SHIT MOTHERFUCKINGBITCHOFASPRAIN!"

The boy gazed at me boredly. "Need help?"

"NO!"

"Alright," he said, leaning back against the wall by the door, "Hurry up, then. It's late. We could get sick."

At that moment I sneezed. Frowning, I looked at the boy, who was already making his way towards me.

"Hold your arms out." he commanded.

Feeling helpless, I held my arms out to him and he reached down to pick me up. As he shifted to hold me like you might a small child, with one arm around my back and the other under my bottom, my face burned as my hands clutched the back of Victorian styled suit jacket.

_How embarassing!_ I thought, burying my face in his shoulder. _This... _This_ is a new form of embarassment I've never felt... I've only heard of this kind of intimacy between lov- No!_

"Put me down..." I mumbled, releasing my grip on his jacket and pushing back on his shoulders slightly, "Put me down..."

Still, he wouldn't listen, continuing through the house and down a long hall. "Come on, let go...!" I muttered.

"You're going to get hurt like this," the onyx eyed boy said.

"LET. _GO._"

"_No._"

Reaching a door on the left side at the end of the hall, the boy used the hand that had been supporting my back to open the door before stepping in.

The room was clean, although looked like it hadn't been used in a while. I was layed on a made bed, my fingers tangling in the silk sheets, my legs sprawled on the bed comfortably.

"So... what now?" I asked, watching the boy as he disappeared into what seemed to be a bathroom and came back with a red first aid kit. He took of my shoes and socks, gingerly bandaging my sprain.

"Right now," he grunted as he bumped his head slightly on the top of the doorframe to the bathroom as he went to replace the first aid kit, "You're going to stay here. No funny business, no escaping. You'll injure yourself further."

A question teetered on my tongue, threatening to spill out.

"What's your name?" I blurted, slapping my hand over my mouth. Didn't I tell myself earlier I _didn't_ want to know his name?

The boy chuckled and began to undress. My face lit up like a firecracker and I turned on my other side, facing the wall.

"Call me...

_**Dark Horse**_."

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><p><em>:D That was finished much faster than I expected! Hope you guys enjoy this, and PLEASE REVIEW! You don't know how much it pains me when I write for hours and no one says anything. They only watch and fave! ;A; But I do appreciate those anyways.<em>

_Messages to the VERY few people who commented on the old version:_

_NerdzRKewl: __Thanks for being my very first REAL REVIEWER and reviewing each new chapter when they came out! XD *gives waffles and twirls around* I know you said you were busy with college(I'm pretty sure that's what you said...) but I hope you can take a little break to read this! *deep bow*_

_You actually helped me with the storyline, whether you knew it or not(Er, I very, uh... _unstalkerishly_ read the comments? Ehehehe... *sweatdrop*). My brother just _pretended_ to know it all and agree with what you said, because he had no idea where he wanted to take the story, thus the odd responses about the story. OTL_

_Thank you so much! -Kurami_

_Sabrina Bane__: Thanks for the review, even if it was short. I almost pissed my pants when I saw 'Review' for Dark Horse in my email box haha! Your review was much appreciated, and I hope you like this version better. If not... Then I've gotta shoot myself, don't I? XD lolz_

_To the rest of the people who miraculously found this rewrite and watched/faved the old one, I hope you like it, even though it must've been hard to find this..._

_Oh, and something that I will now be putting in the chapters_

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	2. Host Club

_Thanks for the comments, guys! I was super happy when I got them._

_I don't know if it alerts you guys of updated chapters, but if it does, gomen ne! I kept forgetting that I still had mistakes left on the first chapter!_

_I'm making a whole crapload of new twists, and more substance, more detail, all that good stuff. This is going to progress slower but it'll be much better than the first version, I promise!_

_This A/N section was written March 19: Oh, and sorry if it seems I'm _trying_ to make Ryu a Mary Sue or get pity for him. I have no other way to write and I kept having dreams last night on how to write my story. Oh and this might be super cheesy at times D: Gomen ne!_

_Thank you to people who reviewed: __Sabrina Bane__, __NerdzRkewl__, __Mesutora_

_Seeing that people review makes me super eccentric! XD_

_Enjoy the chapter!_

_Warning: Language, Violence, Yaoi(BoyxBoy)_

_Disclaimer: I do not own Ouran Highschool/Koukou Host Club or any songs/bands/products/any other anime, manga, or shows/etc._

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><p>'I'm scared... It's dark, and I'm scared. I can't find any way out and I don't know where I am. There's screams that fill my ears, and no one seems to care... It's like it's all...<p>

_dead_.'

2. _Host Club_

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><p><em>"Nii-san, Nii-san!" I turned around to see my younger twin sister, Ayano, racing toward me with her hands clasped over something round in her hands, "Look what I found!"<em>

_Frowning, I looked down at her dirt covered hands. "Were ya playin' in the foresty place by tha Akitsuki's house?"_

_Ayano blushed and her smile faded. "It was only to find this again!" she insisted, "I just hid it, I swear!"_

_My maroon eyes narrowed. "Then where did ya find it?" I hissed, attempting to act tough, only ending up in probably looking stupid._

_Tightening her hold on whatever she was holding, my sister glared up defiantly at me. "Stop acting like your tough 'cause your not! And you have to PROMISE you won't tell anyone!"_

_My frown deepened but I nodded. "Fine. I promise."_

_"Nu-uh, you have to pinky promise!"_

_As she slipped whatever it was she had in her jeans pocket to lock pinkies with me. As her mouth opened to speak and her hand flew back to her pocket, her eyes widened frightenedly to something behind me._

_Letting out a high-pitched scream as time seemed to slow down drastically, Ayano jumped forward to grab me..._

_Only to have an arrow pierce her in the forehead, digging deep through her skull. I never knew who or what did it. But there was screaming and sobbing._

_More screaming._

_Blood was all over her now, and giant, deep purple, transparent spiders were crawling out of her eyes, ears, and mouth, racing toward me._

_The screaming wouldn't stop. It didn't make sense. Ayano was dead... she couldn't scream._

_One of the violet arachnids leaped onto my face, its fangs tearing into my flesh again and again, before blinding me completely with a thick, gooey, orange substance that burned my eyes and the skin around it, literally setting my hands alight when I tried to rub it away._

_By now, the screaming was muffled for a second before raising pitch and volume, muffle, raise pitch and volume, repeating._

_All the horid creatures were on me now, and I had them all over me, ripping skin and muscle down to the bone. My arms were gone, and then, as I stumbled, my legs. The smell of a decaying me filled my nostrils, and my tongue carried the taste of a vile concoction of poison and blood._

_My midsection was almost non-existant and sizzling and bubbling, a sound that wouldn't leave and amped up the sounds of screaming, when I realized something._

_I was the one screaming._

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><p>I bolted upright in the bed, fingers gripping the blanket so tightly my knuckles were white and the tops of a few were slit slightly, blood starting to bead across the cuts. My skin was covered in a cold sweat and my whole being was shaking.<p>

The pounding of feet coming down the hall alerted me, and I stared at the doorway with wide, frightened eyes, frozen in place. There, in only a pair of worn jeans, stood a flushed Dark Horse.

"What's... wrong?" He was panting. Where could he have been in to have to exert enough energy to be this exhausted? It was only... I spared a flickering glace to the clock above the door.

Crap! One in the afternoon!

I turned to the right so quickly that I hit the side of my head on the wall quite hard and blacked out, my body falling back onto the bed and my eyes rolling into the back of my head, my eyelids still open a bit.

_Well, damn it all._

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><p>A quiet groan escaped my lips as I rolled around once again, this time to several copies of the same image of Dark Horse hovering above me with his lips creased into a tight frown.<p>

My brow furrowed and I grit my teeth as the world spun and the taller teen's 'shadow clones', as I will call them, multiplied and rotated.

"Dizzy..." I moaned, reaching up to tangle my fingers in my sweat dampened hair. I couldn't have been out for more than a couple hours, max. Dark Horse gently pried my hands from their death grip on my hair and ran his own long fingers through my firey spikes instead. My energy to fight him off was long gone.

It actually... felt kind nice.

The pads of his fingers brushed against the bruise that had formed on my temple. "This hurt?" he rumbled. I involuntarily pouted a little.

"Yes..."

"Just get some sleep, okay? You rest up. I'll bring you some food later."

"Okay..."

Standing up and walking out of the room, Dark Horse threw one last worried look over my shoulder and I forced a smile, though it came out as a grimace through the pain.

I rolled over, a single tear rolling down my face.

_Ayano,_ I thought, _Where are you? The nightmares are back... Send me a sign that you're safe. Let me know you're still there to hold my hand, kiss my cheek, run your hands through my hair in all of my moments of weakness, and... and... guide me. What do I... do...?_

My eyelids fluttered over my eyes and I snuggled up near the wall, sleep luring me into its arms.

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><p>When I awoke the next morning, sunlight was streaming softly through the windows and onto my hand, the trees outside casting a shadow that looked like...<p>

A girl's hand.

I smiled and sat up, swinging my legs over the side of the bed and limping out into the hall. The sound of a shower running creaked to a stop and I stared at the door.

A wet, dripping Dark Horse stepped out onto the smooth wood paneling of the floor and my eyes nearly broke. The idiot was only wearing a damn TOWEL around his waist!

"C-can I take a shower?" I mumbled, turning my head down to glare holes into the floor.

One look at me and Dark Horse frowned. "Aa." What? Is there something _wrong_ with asking to take a shower? Damn.

I side stepped into the bathroom, the light already on and hot steam nearly suffocating me as it drifted around. It was so distracting I didn't bother locking the door.

Shutting the door and stripping off my clothes and the bandage around my ankle, I turned on the hot water, just wanting to clean up and leave. As I snuck a glance in the mirror, I noticed the buise on my temple was much worse than I had thought. That frown, I figured, had nothing to do with requesting to take a shower.

There was a fairly large, yellow-green-blue-purple-red-black buise on the side of my fucking face, and it'd be difficult to cover up without my sister's amazing make-up skills. I hissed in annoyance and stepped into the cubicle-like shower, closing the aqua glass door behind me, sighing in relief when the hot water hit my skin.

I just stood there for a while, I don't know how long, and simmered in my thoughts. Haha, I made a bad pun...

I sighed and reached for the bottle of citrus scented _Head and Shoulders _shampoo, clicking the cap open and inhaling the scent before squirting a liberal amount into my palm and rubbing it into my hair, working it into a lather.

Rinsing and scratching out the bubbles under the spray with one hand and snatching the red and blue dragon decorated bottle of Axe labeled 'Essence', rubbing some on my body and then standing under the heated water, eyes staring in the general direction of the floor.

_Why did he take me in?_ I raised my head when there was soft knocking and a voice, in the _bathroom_, said, "You alright? You've been in there for more than an hour." Oh. Dark Horse. He must've come in to put his towel back or something.

"Oh. I'll be right out!" I called back, making sure I was fully clean before shutting the water off and stepping out.

On the counter was a pair of dark blue jeans, a black and white checkered belt, a plaid, cotton button up, and a handwritten note on top.

_In the kitchen for breakfast with friends. Hurry; food's getting cold._

_-Mori_

I grunted in confusion before a lightbulb dinged in my small excuse for a brain. So Dark Horse's name is Mori? A harpoon. One that'll stab me, pull me up onto a boat, gut me, and sell me. _Charming._

After I dressed, I dug through one of the pockets of my ruined tuxedo, my fingers closing around a necklace I always had with me. It had the charm of a black dragon with red eyes, surrounded by gold fire and hanging of the platinum chain.

Clasping it behind my neck, I rushed out to the room to find an empty suitcase and another written note.

_You can use this if you'd like, to keep your clothes in._

_-Mori_

Again with the harpoon. Damn.

Stuffing the dirty dress clothes into the beige suitcase, I turned on my heel and raced out of the room, suddenly full of energy... and then my luck faltered and I tripped, getting a pretty bad rug burn behind the jeans I wore.

I followed the scent of scrambled eggs and turkey bacon, being lead into a comfortable looking kitchen with seven people spread out. One guy with dark hair and glasses holding a black folder, a brunette of I-have-no-idea-what-gender, who was being harassed by two red headed twins and a somewhat foreign blonde.

There was a very small blonde eating... cake. For breakfast. Yes, because that's just so normal at, what, seven in the morning? And sitting next to him was who I had come to known as Mori.

The two redheaded twins glanced at me. "Mori-senpai, she's pretty ugly. Flat-chested, too."

I nearly blew my top right then and there. Balling my fists and gritting my teeth, I said, "I'm a guy, you idiots."

"Oh." The two magically appeared at my sides, each hooking an arm into one of mine. "You're still not perfect."

I scowled. "Who said I had to be perfect?" I muttered.

The taller of the two blondes stood up with a whole crapload of bishie sparkles. With a dramatic hand on his chest, he used the other to sweep back his golden hair. "To be a perfect host, one must be impecable by all standards! Which is why _I _am the only perfect host!"

I stared at him. "I don't see it. Looks; no. Charm; no."

You could almost see the poor dude's soul freeze over. Slumping over in a dark corner and fertilizing mushrooms with his depression, you could _feel_ the tenseness wafting slightly.

"Er... you okay?" I muttered, kneeling near the blonde and hesitantly reaching a hand out to place it on his shoulder. With my back turned to the other occupants, I completely missed the hot glare shot in the direction of the mood-swing blonde from the tallest of the companions.

Suddenly, I was enveloped in a bone crushing hug, weakly writhing out of the blonde's grip. "Oh, Kaa-san! He cares about me!"

"No... I... don't!" I gasped.

"Tamaki, set the boy down. You don't even know his name." I barely saw the boy with glasses sneakily flick my off by pushing up his wire framed glasses.

"Ah, you're right!" Suddenly the blonde's face was a milimeter away from mine, his purple eyes sparkling with the energy of a two-year-old. He clasped my hands in his with a vice grip. "My name is Tamaki Suoh, but" - he placed a gentle kiss on my knuckles and my face burned crimson - "your name must be more beautiful than any crystal or flower... my princess."

That crossed the line. Breaking out of his hold and twisting his wrists, I stared at him. "No homo(1), thanks."

Mori frowned and I heard him leave the room, so I turned on my heel and raced after him. I just didn't want to be alone with strangers... But then again... Wasn't Mori a stranger, too? Why did I care so much to be around him?

My face heat up in an embarassing crimson color, hotter than the sun.

_Why... Why does he make my heart beat so erratically? Why do I always want to be around him?_

I had no explaination but one. But it didn't make sense.

_**Guys don't fall in love with other guys... right?**_

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><p><em>Yep. End of chapter two~ I think this was a LITTLE better than the original... :) Hope you guys like it!<em>

_I really wanted to get this out before April Fools, and, what do ya know, I MADE IT! XD My dad's leaving for Florida tomorrow so... -_-'' It was either this or a PR April Fools drabble(which I think I'll also do) for tomorrow, so the drabble is for tommorow and this is to tide you over :3_

_(1) NOT THIS TIME! XD I will write a Power Rangers OC fluff(slash, femslash, het) for the first person who guesses where this is from~ I will be posting the OCs soon~ So that should give you enough time to try and figure it out. You are free to ask friends and what not. BUT! You have to be the first ^^ It's extra special because this is my first 'Easter Egg' 'Contest'._

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	3. Sister

_Here you go guys! The majority of the first half of this chapter was written while I was home, sick with stomach flu/food poisoning, and in bed watching whatever was on TV :P_

_I've redone the kiss, and left out the 'masterbating(*/~/*)' scene to be used in another chapter, but still soon! I've really changed the storyline, and the name of the dragon in a later chapter..._

_Unfortunately, this chapter was easier to write than the first chapter of my Power Rangers fic... :( But it'll be out eventually._

_UPDATE - April 15-22, 2012: I followed some stuff and tried to improve the chapter a bit. Thank you, __NerdzRKewl__ for the review telling me what I messed up on! :) I appreciate it alot~ Also, I don't remember putting in this chapter that it's been three days, which you mentioned in your review. :/ I think I only put that info in the old version's chapter..._

_Hope you enjoy..._

_Disclaimer: Language, [Future] Violence, Yaoi(BoyxBoy)_

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><p>"Your today is my yesterday, and my yesterday is your tomorrow. Your week is my day, and my week is your day. Your month is my year. How old do you think I <em>really<em> am?"

-Ayano

3. _sIsTeR_

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><p>I stumbled over my own feet as I went after Mori, following him to his bedroom.<p>

"Uh, Mori?" I said tentatively, watching from the doorway while he closed the curtains on the window, "Can we... Can we talk?"

Pausing, the lanky teen grunted. "... About what?" he asked, with a little more force than needed.

Sighing, I made my way over to the bed where was kneeling to close the curtains, sitting on the bedspread and smoothing out the sheets. "I... I don't know. Just... talk?" I spun around to face him, legs crossed and hands holding onto the sheets.

Without answering, Mori turned to me, eyes fixating on me in a smoldering gaze that made a shiver run down my spine and freeze me in place.

He kept moving forward, forward, until I could see the grey flecks in his ink black eyes and feel his breath ghosting against my lips. His large, warm hands covering my own, he leaned forward so that his forehead pressed against mine.

"What do you want to talk about?" he whispered, his lips only a hairsbreadth from mine, his thumbs rubbing circles on the backs of my hands.

"I... I... I guess we could talk a-about-" My words were cut off by a warm, slightly chapped pair of lips slanted over mine. Mori pulled away, only to kiss me again, those full lips moving over mine and a sly tongue probing at my lips. Yet I refused to kiss him back. It was that defiance that made him growl and nip at my lips.

I whimpered as one of his hands left mine to lightly grip my shoulder and pull me closer into his form, using my free hand to grip his muscle shirt as my supply of oxygen began to run out. Finally beating against his chest, we seperated with a thin line of saliva connecting our lips.

"So what were we going to talk about?" Mori asked, tilting his head to the side and lightly gripping my chin with one hand.

I shook my head, face flushed. Pushing him away, I stood up and hugged myself. "_Nothing,_" I spat. I had to force myself not to scream '_That was my first kiss, bastard! And I'm not gay!_' "Absolutely _nothing_."

A silence, then a sigh, and then a rustling of clothes before I felt a pair of arms hug me from behind. Shoving my shoulder into his chest, I writhed in his embrace. "_Let go!_" I screamed. The sound of footsteps in the kitchen and the closing of a door alerted me. The fuckin' group they called a 'host club' left. _FML._

"Just... tell me your name first, okay?"

I fell still. _If... If I tell him... Would he leave me alone?_ I voiced my question and there was another sigh.

"Yes."

* * *

><p><strong>Half an hour later...<strong>

**3rd Person POV**

Mori sighed and ran his one hand through his short hair when the boy in his arms stilled and slumped against him.

Picking him up carefully as to not disturb him, Mori carried the unnamed boy to the bed, stripped him down to his boxers, and tucked him in under the blankets. Then he left the room, groaning in frustration.

Flicking off the light, Mori closed the door and started down the hall to the living room where he would work on some wood carvings before going to bed.

_I never did get that name..._

* * *

><p>I ended up not telling him. Instead, I fell asleep in his arms, and woke up alone and tucked into bed, fairly small pieces of wood carved and arranged into a dragon with its long tail wrapped protectively around a wolf who held two roses in its mouth sitting on the bedside table.<p>

Sitting up to get a better look at the peculiar figures using my elbows to support my upper body, the blanket pooled in my lap. Feeling a slight chill, I looked down... and noticed I was naked. Well, almost naked. I still had my boxers on but... still. YOU DON'T STRIP A DAMN KID!

A blush raging in my cheeks, I looked around wildly for my clothes, and they were nowhere to be found... and then I saw them on the edge of the bed. Ahh, my stupidity shines through...

Grabbing the articles of clothing, I quickly jerked them on and glanced out the window. _I better go exploring now, while the weather's good_, I thought.

I found a new pair of hiking boots for me sitting next to the closed door. Slipping them on, I frowned. For me blowin' the guy off, Mori was pretty considerate.

I tiptoed into the kitchen, as Mori was sleeping on the sofa in the living room and there was no door to separate the two rooms, and quickly made turkey bacon and om-rice with mushrooms.

Then I scribbled down a note saying I'd be back soon and for him to go ahead and eat without me, I flung open the back door, and my feet were flying before they even reached the ground.

* * *

><p>Out in nature, my senses sharpened and I almost salivated at the thought of getting away. But a tiny little piece of my mind tugged at my concious insistantly. '<em>Do do that<em>,' it seemed to say, '_He took you in. Don't leave him when he's so kind and be gracious! Don't be a brat, Ryu!_' while another screamed '_RAPIST!_'

I scowled and thought over my options, still sprinting at top speed. I took an unpaved path down a darker way of the forest. It was one that I had never gone through, but, after a moment of reasoning, I ran down with my necklace bouncing against my chest, with a certain special glow and burn that spread to the rest of my body, heating me in the cold chill of the early morning.

* * *

><p>The rocky road was ominous and held an air of mysteriousness, with almost a bluish tint to the mist moving around me. It smelled sweet, kind of like the same kind of mist or fog they use sometimes in lazer tag games, and made me a bit dizzy and disoriented. It was dangerous.<p>

The trees now loomed far above me and were thick enough to completely cover my vision of the sky, and it all was unnerving. From the questionable sounds of the forest to the fact that I couldn't see more than twenty or so feet in front of me before it faded completely to black, made my insides crawl.

And I hated it all.

Picking up my pace a bit, I sniffed very carefully through the air. Was that... fire? Ashes? Um... burning pine wood?

_Should I be able to know all this?_

_**Haha! You really are stupid, aren't you? **_**Man**_** they get **_**stupider and stupider**_** every year!**_ a voice spoke. It sounded like me, but with more of a malicious edge to it, turning my stomach. It echoed through my mind, like my brain was one endless, black room, I was standing in the middle of it, and this... _thing_ was trying to creep me the fuck out. And, so far, it was serving its purpose.

_What the- ? ! Who are you? !_

_**Hn. My point proven!**_

_Wait... Is that a light?_

Shutting out the weird voice in my head, I ran toward the little flickering speck of red, orange, and yellow light, feeling a pressure in my temples and making me somewhat nauseous.

The leather boots thumped against the ground and my stomach grumbled, annoyingly reminding me that I hadn't eaten since... Since the day I took off. That was almost three days ago, because I vaugely remember the clock in Mori's bedroom saying it was near ten, beating myself over it because I never slept that late on a usual basis.

Indeed, the smoky smell of the fire was growing stronger and the light grew bigger with each step until I was at a small campsite, fit for only two people. A small, dark blue tent sat near the crackling fire, two homemade fur-lined, deerhide sleeping bag peeking out of the opening. Close to the fire was a makeshift mini-kitchen, an almost even wooden cutting board sitting atop a large, flat stone, a smaller flat stone heated over a wire rack(that was most probably stolen), a piece of meat cooking slowly.

Some weapons were laying about. A black and blue doubled-edged sword was propped up against a rock near a transparent blue bow with a bell on the top and a quiver of the same color lay on the ground. A few assorted blue, purple, or black knives were scattered around, as well. Pushknives, switchblades, field knives, and a couple others I didn't recognize, most with a goopy substance on them that was probably potent poison.

I was aware of the uneasiness of being watched, the hairs on the back of my neck prickling and my stomach rolled. Life was not being good to me. How could it give me all the bad luck when I was so out of practice?

I know I should've known better, considering that I _used to be _the best living weapon alive. Evasive, offesive, defensive, and all the rest of the different tactics were my specialty. Yet I was foolish enough to get my foot snagged on a tripwire and get caught in an intricate web of netting that tightened every time I moved. At this rate of my current squirming, I'd be asphyxiated in a few minutes; exactly the purpose of this particular design.

My body was twisted in an awkward angle, one arm behind my back and almost touching my neck with the other pulled the other way and my legs brought back with my feet against my ass, my face narrowly missing the rough rope of the netting.

"Shit..." I grumbled, eyes scanning the ground below me. I was quite a ways up and a normal drop from here would likely send me into a whole lotta suffering. _If it didn't kill me first_. A pair of x-tipped arrows sunk into the backs of my hands and I just barely resisted crying out.

_**Or if a barrage of arrows kills you, **_the voice in my head snickered.

_UGH, you're back again... Who the hell are you, anyway? _To my annoyance, the voice was gone as suddenly as it'd come, and left me with more curiosity than before.

There was a groan and shuffling. "Dammit! I was hoping that it'd be some animal or someth - RYU? ! I-It's me!" My eyes widened. _No fucking way_. "Goddammit! Naruki! I told you to set the traps carefully!"

"Sorry," another voice said, also female. She didn't sound very apologetic.

A girl with blue eyes the color of sapphires and aquamarines floating in the clearest sea in the ocean came into view, her shoulder length, dark chocolate colored hair slightly damp and her bangs cut across her forehead. Her face was much less childish from when the last time I'd seen her, which was a given, as my last look of her was a little over ten years ago. A cerulean colored wolf stood protectively in front of her. This was the girl that sent me into nightmares all of the nights that I was actually able to sleep for more than thirty minutes at a time. My twin and only sibling, Takahashi Ayano.

Another girl about the same age with light, smokey purple hair that flowed over her shoulders and bangs that almost completely hid her eyes. Unlike my twin, her hair was not in any form wet. Her face was a bit more mature than Ayano's, with more experience and hardship steeling over her eyes, only the slightest bit of warmth detected. Said eyes were now a dakr purple color from the paler, almost lavender shade it had been when we were kids. But the thing about her skin was... I didn't remember her ever having this 1600 aristocrat pale skin. But then again... I never had a perfect memory.

A forest green serpent followed closely by her heels with the loyalty of a dog, never daring to strike her.

They looked so different, now. It had been a long time. Much too long.

"Ayano? Naruki?" I called out. "Is that you? OH MY FUCKING GOD ARE YOU GUYS REAL? !"

"Yeah! Hold on a sec. I'll get you right down!" Ayano clambered up the tree and made a safe rip in the top of the netting so that it wouldn't break, turned me over, and stuck one hand out. Her knife was stuck in the wood next to her and her other hand was wrapped as much as possible around the tree. "Come on!"

Struggling to support my weight evenly so I wouldn't fall, I tightly grasped my sister's hand as she hoisted my next to her on the thick branch. I hadn't done this shit in a while.

Naruki simply stared at me from her spot on the ground and took an arrow from her quiver, fitting it into her blue and purple bow to cut off the remaining shreds of the trap.

I muttered quietly to myself about crazy, purple haired girls, wincing when Ayano led me down the tree and my hands began to bleed some more. At the bottom, she disappeared into their tent to retrieve a solution made of water and some herbs and some clean bandages, pulling out Naruki's arrows. She kept a hold on them as she cleaned and patched up my injured hands.

Naruki blinked several times, each time sending a short burst of icy wind cutting through the trees, as if it was controlled by her. Ayano frowned at the arrows in her hands, and it began to sprinkle. This, too, seemed to be caused by some kind of power that the two possessed.

I was confused, happy, and anxious all at once. What had I missed all of these years?

* * *

><p>I took a piece of the flatbread from one of the large leaves used as plates and dipped it in the sweet, sour, and spicy sauce-ish thing that Ayano made, stabbing a piece of perfectly cooked rabbit meat with the knife I borrowed. We were sitting around the fireplace and having dinner.<p>

"Thiph iph gooph,(1)" I muffled, swallowing when she gave me a pointed look. "Sorry."

"So," Ayano started, "why are you in this part of Leverayx?"

I frowned in confusion. "I thought we were in Japan?"

Ayano glanced up before sighing and scraping her own knife against a small leaf. "No. We're in another world of sorts. You crossed the barrier the moment you stepped onto the unpaved road near that..." Ayano's nose crinkled as she sneered, "_boy's_ house."

Naruki rolled her eyes at Ayano's obvious scorn.

I shifted uncomfortably. "You know... You know Mori?"

She gave a snort and stood up, eyes now calculating and cold as it scanned the forest around us. "Of course not. Until now, he has been known as 'boy'. Perhaps now we are able to remove this threat to your kingdom."

I was flabbergasted. "Wha - What do you mean?"

Ayano looked me square in the face. "I'll explain more later, but right now, your throne is in danger."

In the backround, Naruki frowned, but said nothing, keeping the aloof personality she'd had since childhood.

I was suddenly scared. This person... who took me in and cared for me, if not for a little molestion, was somewhat special, holding some kind of place in my heart. "So... what does _that_ mean?" I whispered to my sister, our childhood friend forgotten.

_"We're going to have to kill him."_

* * *

><p><em>(1) "This is good!"<em>

_A little shorter than the other two, but I wanted to give a cliffe and I just wanted to get this out for a quick update!_

_So! An update on Easter? A complete coincidence. But I love writing this! XD Unfortunately, my PR fic isn't anything close to how I want it, so I'll be rewriting it, so that means a month or so of extra wait for it :(_

_But please support me! :3_

_A/N UPDATE - April 15-22, 2012: Sorry this somewhat updated version took a bit to fix :/ my friend, Makina or, as she's known on FF __SoulReaper-I'llRipUrSoulOut__. Please read her story that she has out and she will be getting a new Ouran fic with my OC ver. of Ryu and her characters. :O But I'm not sure if that story will be my Ryu and her OC fic, or if she'll hand Ryu over to Mori to have in her story... But I think it might be the former. :l I don't even know..._

_Sorry if my new chapters come a bit later; it's the final stretch of the year, and we get released from school June 1(WHEEEEE!) so during the two months of summer vacation, my PR OC fic should be out(if not before) and Dark Horse should be well into itself. I'm planning a (hopefully) tragic, shocking, and heart-wretching ending with a sequal. But the ending and the sequal is a bit predictable, because, well... You'll understand when this fic is over :P_

_But because it's the last months of the school year, it means I'll be really busy! I still need to finish my paper mosaic that's 1/2 done and due April 27. The half that I've done took so long though... I need to raise my grade in Band(crazy that I have A-/B+ in BAND, right? !) and my grade in Bible(meh. I was never good at remembering to do the backs of worksheets...) from a D to an A before the year ends... I have so much to do..._

_Also, we have an almost carnival-like event we call May Festival that takes place in the first Sunday of May(this year it's on the 6th) and we're dying eggshells and filling them with confetti to sell for our class trip at the end of the year. But I don't know how this relates to my fics being updated :/ School is so tiring and annoying..._

_One last announcement:_

_If my latest chapters start to seem kinda sad, it's because I've recently broken up with my boyfriend, whom I'm still very much in love with. So forgive me for the 'tragic' chapters and laziness and tiredness that comes from having to put up the act of being completely fine the whole day._

_April 22: OMFG. I JUST FINISHED WRITING BECAUSE MAKINA FINALLY SENT ME NARUKI'S NEW SHIT. MY GODS. *dies*_

_You changed her completely, Maki-chan! DX And I had to go back and redo her whole thingy-blah! D:_

_Hopefully this will be the last update on this chapter..._

_-Kurami_

_R_

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	4. What're You Hiding?

_Our two boys have a hell of a bad time ahead of them. Upcoming smut in about... chapter eight, though. Sorry if you guys hate it being slow :/_

_Warning: Language, Violence, Yaoi_

_Disclaimer: Ouran is Bisco Hatori's. Any products/bands/songs/etc are not mine._

_Let's start this shit already..._

* * *

><p>God-fucking-dammit.<p>

4. _wHaT'rE yOu HiDiNg?_

* * *

><p>I'm quite embarassed to say that the first action that I physically did to my sister after she told me that we'd have to kill Mori was slap her hard across the face, my expression blank as the tall teen we were talking about.<p>

"You're lying."

Shocked and more than a little pissed, Ayano returned the favor, my cheek stinging a hundred times more than her's probably did. "No, I'm not."

I was getting a little more than aggitated. It didn't take much to set me off in the first place. "Yeah?" I said, my voice rising, "_Spill it._"

"Fine," Ayano huffed. Her new attitude surprised me, because, when we were kids, she used to be sweet and angelic and now she's... not. I just can't find any other words to use at the moment...

But... It's like... She doesn't need me. That's it. And it hurts. Alot.

"Start from the beginning." I turned my eyes to the sky, counting to ten almost seven times before Ayano spoke again, her voice a little more gentle now.

"When... When you were adopted from the Krystle Agency and Neku Orphanage, Naruki and I ran off with Razi. You know, to find a place that was better for us."

Ryu nodded. Go figure. Razi and Naruki were joined at the hip; best of friends to the point that they were almost like sisters. They did everything together, and, under the circumstances of the last two people she knew and had comfort and trust in leaving, Ayano obviously would follow without a backwards thought.

"A few months, almost a year, after we left Naruki and I split paths with Razi. She said that she needed to finish some business, but that she could get us a place to stay for as long as needed with electronics for Naruki." The lilac haired girl simply turned in the twin's direction from where she sat on a rock by the side of the tent, blinked, and shifted slightly in her seat at the mention of electronics. The girl would go mad, even berserk, without the precious devices.

Ayano continued, "So we settled down for a couple years, then took off when Razi came back for us. She wouldn't tell us what she left for, though." After a moment of thought, she added, "But we really didn't question it.

"The three of us wandered around, and stumbled upon this place, Leverayx, but farther north" - Ayano made a vague circling gesture with her hand behind her, extending her arm as far as possible without turning - "and met the Elvin, Dragons, and Misfits." She sighed.

I was puzzled. "'Misfits'?"

Ayano nodded grimly. "They're the hybrids, beasts, cannibals, basically any freak show circus folk you might think up who band together to get away from the haters in society. They're accepted here in Leverayx, and the shows they preform are highly praised and treated as if it were a spectacular event instead of how _nyeshuus_ recieve their acts. And, as it turns out, Itaku, Iatku, Momo, and Kiari are in their group as preformers and heads."

My head swirled with all these concepts, and I had a bad feeling this wasn't even close to a fourth of it. Itaku, Iatku, Momo - they were our only known cousins. Itaku and Iatku were twins, Momo being their little sister, and Kiari being the blind girl that they took in who had her eyes gouged out for a reason we didn't speak of anymore."What the - '_nyeshuus_'? The hell are those?"

Naruki frowned and moved to sit next to Ayano, sharing the rock as a seat. Ayano had a twin expression marring her features. She frowned, cursed, scowled, whatever, much more often than I would like her to. "_Nyeshuu_: it's basically the word that Leverans use that roughly translates into several words which are 'foreign', 'unrealistic', 'superficial', 'shallow', and other words along those lines," Ayano explained, "and it's rather often used to categorize anyone from Earth. We're more in a parallel universe, if you will. _Nyeshuus_ is the plurel form."

I nodded slowly, half comprehensing her words. Ayano noticed and shrugged. "It's hard to explain. Took Naruki and me almost six months to understand and use it in the right way. Their language is kinda hard to learn..."

I sputtered. "First English, then German, then French, then Spanish, then Tagalog, then now _this_? !"

"Yes, this. Now, can I continue?"

I groaned and nodded, my head falling. "Good.

"So we took lessons from the Twins, Momo, and Kiari to learn the language, Xia-nym. It's deathly fast." I didn't even bother to ask. "And you'll obviously have to take lessons, as well.

"We met Lynna Triesset, who's a maid at the castle, and at the time she was shopping for groceries. It was just Naruki and me, then. She said something... something about my eyes in their rushed Xia-nym, grabbed our hands, and started running to the castle. When we got there, we were dragged in and told the stories and legends about our family.

"Our royal line extends far, far back, before the Earth was recorded by celestial beings. Naruki's and Razi's, too. Though they're from an aristocratic line. We're more of a combatant or mission kind of royalty, if that makes any sense. Warriors, archers, thieves, mages; fantasy RPG stuff, which I wouldn't have thought of in a million years, due to our orpha-."

I had to interupt, a persistant question tugging at the back of my mind. "So what does any of this have to do with killing Mori?" I blurted, unintendedly snappish.

Ayano's eyes hardened over again. "I guess we'll tell you now, and tell you the other shit later.

"The Morinozuka clan were the servants and guards of the Haninozuka clan, who specialize in martial arts. They attacked Leverayx by finding this forest and the path somehow. Our theory is that we had a traitor who slipped out around the sixteenth century or so, and most of Leverayx went up in flames, literally. This was about a hundred years before Naruki's and Razi's family were accepted into aristocracy." Ayano gave a small yawn. It was getting late, but she already knew I would push her for time.

"Took _years_ to build even half the city back up. By that time, most of the Misfits were off on a circus tour in another continent. See, Leverayx is only one country in this world, Femmirea. The main country, but still just one country, and our defenses were caught completely off guard. Stirred a huge ruckus and we all went into chaos.

"Our supplies; stolen. Our housing; obliterated. Our -"

"I get it, already. Hurry up and go on with the story!" I cut in. If I was going to be the 'king' of this place, I didn't really want to hear about how much the city was destroyed and suffered. "It's late..."

Ayano gave another big yawn that she hid behind her hand. "Fine. So, as I was saying..."

As it turns out, the burning of the city wasn't the only reason why Leverans hated the Morinozukas and Haninozukas. Apparently, they had also killed various important people throughout Leverayn history. There was a suspicion that Ayano and my parents were among them, which is a possible reason as to why Ayano and I are orphans.

By the time Ayano had suggested we should all go bed and I could use her sleeping bag for the night, anger bubbled heatedly at the bottom of my soul, before a cooling sensation that I could only describe as fondness for Mori, leaving me with an upset stomach, a wicked migrane, and a mind full of doubt.

As I snuggled into the warm, fur-lined sleeping bag, the voice emerged from the corner of my mind where he'd stayed silent throughout the whole storytelling.

_**You see why we need to kill him now? You'd be a fool not to.**_

_But that was generations and generations back; more than two thousand years! There's no way that he could've played any part in it._

**Che**_**. Maybe not then, but I heard from a ghost of a Misfit nicknamed Balmes that in a couple months, the Morinozuka and Haninozuka are going to teach their Ways of Power to their heirs, and twist the story so that **_**we're**_** the bad guys! Don't you see, Ake? This 'Mori' kid might already know about it and they've been tracking you! He wants to get close to you so that you're vulnerable!**_

I didn't answer to that one. I heard an annoyed huff from my Inner, and a rushed, muttered sentence in some foreign tongue that certainly wasn't any kind of human. Maybe it was that Xia-nym language.

I closed my eyes and fell asleep to the eerie howling song of Ayano's wolf.

_Sleep, for I will watch over you,_

_My Fallen Angel_

_No matter how wicked,_

_I will always love you._

* * *

><p><em><strong>Ha! You're kidding me, right? You think that by not answering, just falling asleep, that you can completely avoid the problem? Or do you simply need persuasion?<strong>_

There was that voice again. My voice, but at the same time, not. My eyes snapped open and my head whipped around, searching for the owner of the eerie voice.

My dream was peculiar. What seemed to be my mind was upside down, city, office-like buildings hanging from the sky, and what should've been the sky was water with clouds in it and it was solid. Somewhat. I could stand in it, but water came up to my ankles.

(A/N: Reference of Ryu's inner mind to Vocaloid's 'Matryoshka' because of the buildings that are in the pictures that you can find[this is so vauge xD look it up if you don't know what I'm talking about] and the scene in one of the very early Ouran episodes [1 or 2?] where Tamaki is helping Haruhi find her wallet in the pond/fountain thing, and it looks like they're standing in the sky with it ripping around them ^^)

I was barefoot and standing in the water/sky, the water rippling at the slightest movement, wearing a white and red striped longsleeve(personally, a horrid choice of colors for stripes) and a pair of maroon colored silk pants that closed comforabley around my ankles. A figure materialized out of a black liquid in front of me, building it up from the bottom of the figure's feet to the last hair on his head.

It was... me. But his hair and eyes were black, instead of red. He instead of white and red, his longsleeve was black and red and his pants were black. Set in his face was a grin that displayed his sharp teeth, his inky black tongue peeking out every once in a while to lick and prod at the tips of those deliously dangerous canines.

"_**Tia. Evlyria shien kokai operu,**_" the copy spoke. Foreign. Breakneck speed. _Xia-nym_. "_**Cleshi nye Fariwua le M ena? Seru kleh mechna kemo suni, xika.**_(So. You're finally here. How do you like your Inner World? I'm quite fond of it, really.)"

I blinked. "The fuck? Sorry, but I don't speak Xia-nym."

The copy looked pleasantly surprised. "_**Hé? Ng iteiru spiné?**_(Hm? You understand me?)"

I frowned. "I said I don't know Xia-nym. Can't you understand me? You were speaking to me in Japanese perfectly fine earlier."

My copy gave me an amused smile. "**Are you sure that I wasn't speaking in Xia-nym, and you understood it perfectly fine so that your brain 'translated' it into Japanese for you?**" The voice of Copy was different from when he was in my head; it had more of an edge to it, was slightly deeper, and sounded a bit more feral. In all honesty, I nearly jumped out of my skin at the sound of _that voice _seemingly speaking Japanese.

I thought for a moment before answering, my body stilling as Copy resumed messing with his teeth. "That's... not possible. I've never even heard the language before now."

That amused grin stretched a little wider. "**You sure? Humans often forget things from their childhood, and you're no human. Such a shame.**" The grin was in danger of splitting Copy's face. "**You're mother's lullaby's were such beatiful things, too. **_**Such**_** a shame.**"

My brow furrowed and my body tensed forward toward Copy. My jaw clenched. "What do you know about my mother?" I hissed.

Copy laughed, a rich, mirthful laugh, like I'd just said the greatest joke he'd ever heard. It was borderlining on insane. "**Ha! What do I know about you're mother? You're... You're... You're a good one, aren't you? Haha! Don't you understand? Why I can share all these memories that you don't remember since the days of your rebirth? Why, if you ask me, which I know you eventually will, I can recall every event that has to do will anyone from your blood, from your time?**" Copy's laughter died abruptly and his expression turned sober as he approached me. I wanted to back up, but my muscles froze in place.

"**I honestly hoped you would catch on sooner, my dear, **_**dear**_** Ake. This is almost depressing.**"

_H-huh?_ I was no longer capable of audible speech, but Copy heard me nonetheless.

"**This is rich... Oh, Aka...**

**I. Am. You.**"

I squeezed my eyes shut. This wasn't happening. This wasn't real. This was a dream, and when I opened my eyes, I would wake up. Last night was a dream. I'm really just in Mori's bedroom, my dreams caused by a possible fever or some kind of painkiller.

When I reluctantly opened my eyes, Mori's room wasn't the image that greeted me, neither was my inner world.

Tall flames danced all around me, higher and farther than I could see, black smoke blinding me. Then the infernal mass twisted into a smirking Copy's face.

The scent of burning skin assulted my senses and Copy laughed maliciously.

I knew that it was me burning.

* * *

><p>I shot up into a sitting position, a sheen of cold sweat coating my skin. I clumsily released myself from the suffocating confines of the sleeping bag and raced out of the tent, nearly knocking Ayano over, who was about to open the flap of the tent to wake me up. Naruki stood behind her, holding her bow and a new quiver of arrows. It was then that I realized I was only an inch taller than Naruki, Ayano being 5'6", Naruki being 5'8", and me being 5'9".<p>

"Woah! Slow down, Ryu! Where's the fire?" Ayano joked light-heartedly.

_You're looking at it_, I thought bitterly.

Trying to ignore her her, I stared into Naruki's eyes, fearful. "I'll be back here in a week. Give me until then. I want you to teache me Xia-nym." Then I added desperately, "Please."

Naruki had a ghost of a smile on her lips. Ryu Takahashi, begging her to teach him a language? And this desperate? Definately a rare occurance.

"Alright. But be here in exactly one hundred-sixty-eight hours or earlier, not a second later, or your lessons will forever be invalid." Huh. Typical Naruki.

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><p><em>Hope you guys enjoyed the chapter and the appearance of Copy. Ryu will later find out the Copy wants to be called Kuro. Not really all that of a spoiler \P Sorry if this chapter is a bit short, though.<em>

_I'm going to try to update at _least_ once a month(not sure I'll be able to, but I'll try!) Today was mid-semester break day so I had nothing to do, home with my brother, so after I got some new music from the youtube-mp3 converter, I set to work with my library on loop sometimes early this morning, but I paused a few times to write a total of 21 measures for a song __Scorpian's Eternal__ and I are writing called Hell's Angel that will be eventually turned into a fic. ^^; Didn't get very far, but at least I have all the lyrics done..._

_If this is a bit badly worded or just plain too wordy, forgive me. D: I had to fit some kind of destruction into Leverayx. The names of the other countries will be in the next few chapters. Oh, and I already have the next four chapters PLANNED, so that's a little less time that you have to wait. And the names of the four chapters, when finished, are suppost to be joined into one phrase :3_

_Also, my PR fic is going very VERY slowly D: Can anyone who's watched Power Rangers give me ideas for my Ranger 'series' name? Like types? Real Ex: Turbo, Zeo, Dino Thunder, etc. I need help! I don't know what to name them! : Their Zords have to do with mythical creatures, so that should help a little._

_Thanks for being awesome~ lol_

_~Kurami~_

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	5. Ake and Kuro

_Shout out to: __NerdzRkewl__, __NeonStarShine__,__Sabrina Bane__, __SoulReaper-I'llRipUrSoulOut__(Ah, Makina, your username is so long -_- lol) and anyone else who faved or alerted!_

_NerdzRkewl: You are so awesome! Every chapter review, no matter how late or early, helps my writing and you point out all the major mistakes. You are my goddess xD *presents virtual brownies*_

_NeonStarShine: You have no idea how much I screamed in happiness when I saw THREE. REVIEWS. IN. A. ROW. Thank you so much~ And I'll try to tell you when I find any, but as of now, they're scarce..._

_SoulReaper-I'llRipUrSoulOut: Maki-chaaaaan. Your user is so long -_- like I said lol_

_Our story is becoming a bit bland :| meh. haha but whatevzzzz... *gives virtual Star Wars pillow and blanket so you can sleep*_

_Sabrina Bane: Thanks for reviewing, even if it's really short :)_

_A/N: Sorry for the late update! I got lazy, and then I decided to do these four parts and write and upload them seperately and and... I really have no good excuse. But the week that I finished this I was in Las Vegas, NV we didn't have internet, since it was the middle of the week and my dad STILL couldn't get a hold of the company that we had to call to get the internet and... *sigh*_

_Um... This long-ish chapter is compensation for your patience? *sweatdrop*_

_Warning: Violence, Language,Yaoi(BoyxBoy), and a long 'lesson' on a fictional world. :|_

_Disclaimer: I do not own Ouran or any products/bands/songs/companies/etc mentioned._

_P.S. These Warnings and Disclaimers are the last. I honestly don't think we need any more._

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><p><em>"Uh, can I take back my decision about doing whatever tomorrow? No? Okay..."<em>

-Ryu

5.0. _Ake and Kuro_

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><p>After a teary goodbye and some reluctant direction-giving from Ayano, I trudged back to Mori's cabin.<p>

**Tsk tsk tsk**_**, he's not going to like how long you've been gone, Aka.**_

_Y-you again? ! Haven't you plauged me enough? ! And for your information, it's only been one night. It's not that long._

_**Ah, and that's where you're **_**wrong**_**, Aka. You see, you've actually been gone three days, almost four. A week total since you've left the mansion(1).**_

_E-eh? That's... That's not right! You're lying. I swear you're lying._

_**Oh? Then hurry up. You'll regret thinking that I lied to you. And then you'll see that we should merge.**_

My necklace's distinct burn seemed to intensify tenfold and I suddenly forgot to breathe for a moment. The cold edge to Copy's tone seemed to suck the oxygen out of my lungs.

"Be quiet..." I hissed aloud, thumping my fist on my sternum until Copy reluctantly released his invisible hold on my lungs. I took a deep breath. Better. Oxygen. "We're near his house."

**HA. **_**Now **_**this**_** should be interesting.**_

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><p>I was back at Mori's house. I wasn't sure if I'd ever see it again, and I didn't know if it was a good thing or a bad thing. The same dark marble walls, the same navy blue wooden shutters, the same nearly black, dark blue door. The same... white lilies? I'm pretty sure... those weren't... there before. Lilies...<p>

The flower of mourning.

The stark contrast of the ivory petals stood out against the darkly decorated house, the flowers sitting in two red vases on the porch.

Speeding up my pace a bit to get to the house, I felt that nagging tug at the base of my skull.

_**He thinks you're dead.**_

_Leave me alone! _I growled, willing my thoughts to sound as annoyed and commanding as possible.

My attempts proved futile, as Copy continued to speak. I was twenty feet before the door.

_**He thinks you left him.**_

Fifteen feet.

_**He thinks you're never coming back.**_

Ten feet.

_**He's been crying, you know.**_

I leaped for the door, pulling it open with surprising ease, as the lock was undone. _Who's stupid enough to leave their door unlocked?_

Stepping inside quietly, I glanced around cautiously, hoping he wasn't home. I really didn't want to explain anything, when I, myself, barely understood anything my sister and Naruki had told me.

Tiptoeing into the kitchen, my heart beat at such a rate I thought it might explode. Why was I scared? Why did was I concerned? _Why didn't I just stay with my sister and Naruki?_

Freezing at the sight before me, my heart immediately clenched. Mori had his upper body half-splayed on the dining table, hands tightly gripping the note I'd written. The lights were turned off, but what little natural light there was trickled through the cracks in drawn curtains, casting dancing slivers of light onto his form and the table.

My face twisted in sympathy and guilt.

_Shit..._

"Mori?" I whispered, as to not startle him too much. His figure stirred slightly, and bleary, red-rimmed eyes - though intensely dark circles around his dark orbs were quite prominent - glanced up at me, flashing first with shock, then confusion, then annoyance, then anger.

Standing up so quickly that he knocked the wooden chair over, Mori crossed the room over to where I stood in the doorway in three quick strides, grasping my chin tightly with one hand, the other wrapping gently but firmly around my neck.

"Where have you been?" the ebony haired boy all but snarled, grip on my chin tightening slightly. Although his expression remained impassive, his eyes glittered with a silent rage's unknown origin, jaw set firmly in an attempt to restrain from killing me.

But why? To everything, WHY?

Struggling to talk with the vice-grip on my chin, I mumbled, "The forest."

Those gray eyes darkened to an almost complete black, pupils nearly invisible. "What were you doing there?"

I tried to scowl, but it was hard to. "Just going around; don't be so touchy," I snapped, jerking my head back and out of his hold. "Why do you care?"

Mori stared at me. "You haven't heard the stories?" he whispered incredulously. "They're told to all children. Everywhere."

I met his gaze with equal blankness. "No. What are they?"

The black haired teen leg go and sighed heavily, walking backwards and sideways until his back hit the marble countertop. He hoisted himself up onto the blue ledge to sit on it, and scrubbed his hands over his face. "So you don't know _anything_ about the Lever- I mean _Mikera's_ Forest." It wasn't much of a question, really. More like a conclusion.

And what the hell? 'Mikera'?

I gave a one shouldered shrug. "Nothing much," I lied.

Mori sighed and glanced up before sighing again. "Time passes faster there. I would've told you, but you left with only leaving a note" - he held the crumpled note still in his hand up, part of it peeking through his fist before his fist uncurled and the paper dropped to the floor - "and then you come back today. Where did you go in the forest?" Ash colored eyes looked up at my face. "You had to be somewhere."

Oh, shit. "Um... When I was a kid, I used to stay out on my own a lot, so I took care of myself. Not like I would find anyone out there, right?" Lying was becoming increasingly difficult under Mori's scruntinizing gaze.

Mori narrowed his eyes, pushing off against the countertop. In two quick strides he crossed back over to me and stared deeply into my maroon eyes. "You're probably the most selfish person I've ever met, you know that?" Tearing his gaze from me, Mori tiredly rubbed at both his eyes with one hand. "This is ridiculous."

I could feel my infamous temper rising. I'd always had a short fuse. "I never asked you to take care of me or take me here, now did I?" I snapped, unnecessarily pushing hard against his chest to keep him farther away from me. "_You're_ ridiculous!"

Mori scowled darkly as I took a step forward. He brought his hand back as if to slap me, and I closed my eyes tightly. I never felt the blow. Instead, there was a loud noise of skin slamming against the wall. When I reopened my eyes, I was looking straight into dark gray ones.

"_Shut up_."

I don't know who reacted first, but in the next moment, both my hands were tightly wrapped around Mori's throat firmly but not squeezing, only one of Mori's hands wrapping around my own.

I struggled to breathe while the tall teen seemed to be unaffected.

Vibrations buzzed through my fingers as Mori spoke.

"You really are selfish."

"_Shut. Up._" I hissed, feeling frustrated tears pricking at the corners of my eyes and my nose tingling.

"You don't realize it, do you? You're one of the most selfish people that I've met. You never think about anyone else's feelings."

My eyes widened. Had I really been that neglegent? I mean... He was so generous, and I repay him by being an annoying, bratty prick.

Lowering my hands from his neck and waiting until Mori did the same, I sighed. "I'll just... go."

Without another word, I ducked under his arm and dashed from the house, a lump in my throat making it hard to breathe.

_What the hell?_

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><p>"So," Ayano sighed, stirring a wooden spoon through a thick, caramel hued broth heavily laden with oddly colored and shaped vegetables and meats that I had my eyes locked on, "You're back again because of the Morinozuka boy-thing?" The neon green meat worried me the most. I mean, it was, like... <em>SWELLING<em>? !

"Uh... Yeah," I mumbled, eyes slightly widening in horror as the bright green strip of meat seemed to grow teeth or... _something_.

"It seems as though you've placed your trust in the wrong people, once again, Ryu," Naruki spoke over the rim of a hard-baked clay cup filled with orange-infused black tea. Steam wafted up from the surface of the hot liquid to her nose. She took a sip, then a soft frown marred her features. "Ah, and your tea making abilities are still absolutely horrid."

I gave a half-hearted shrug. "Not my fault I was voluntold(2) to make it." By now, the meat was starting to eat a carrot-potato vegetable thing and turning the color of the Carribean Sea. _I wonder what kind of animal in Leverayx or Femmirea has this meat..._

I'd spaced so deeply in my musings that I had subconsciously blocked out any and all sound until the last of Ayano's sentence cut through the thick wall of 'silence'.

"... so it'll be alright if we start tomorrow, right?" she said with a bit of a foreign lilt pitching her tone. Maybe it was a - what did Ayano say? - Levyn accent?

"Huh?" My head jerked up and then sank back down to the stew. The meat finally seemed to die enough to stop moving. It returned to its neon shade, though. "Oh, uhhh... yeah."

She grinned, pearly white teeth glinting mischievously in the flickering fire we set in the evening light. "Great!" The corners of her mouth stretched farther, the bridge of her nose crinkling in what we'd come to know as the Takahashi smile. Her elongated canines showed completely. Yep. I've lost interest with the meat, now... "Be ready at the crack of dawn, or else Naruki will submerge you in the lake - again."

I paled. The memory of the three of us as young children, with a very VERY skinny and small me being held under the surface of a crystal clear lake by a scarily blank faced Naruki was enough for me to keep listening.

"Are you sure he's ready for it?" Naruki asked with the slightest upward pull at the corners of her lips. "He hasn't even been exposed to any of the Levyn viruses, much less learned about the Energies. He might tap into his Intra Energy too much and kill himself unknowingly."

Confused and a little scared, I raised my hand. "Uh, can I take back my decision about doing whatever tomorrow?"

Of course, the two girls ignored me. Not like it was new. They've done it since we were born. "No? Okay..." I sighed, scooting backwards and out of the strongest light of the fire.

While the two girls slipped into Xia-Nym, and I could only pick out bits and pieces of English and Japanese words that didn't have a Xia-Nym alternative, a cold hand slipped into mine and I startled.

Turning around slowly, I saw Copy grinning evily back at me, the ruby-plated hilt of a jagged, double-edged obsidian knife hanging almost lopsidedly in his sharp-toothed mouth. His eyes were still as black as the blade he held in his toothy grip, spiky hair the bluish-black color of the midnight sky in the starless city.

Copy opened his jaw and let the weapon drop into his free hand. The hand that held mine was locked in a freezing, unbreakable grip, sharp, black painted nails digging into my palm.

"It's nice ta see ya 'gain, Ake-chan," Copy purred, squeezing my hand. "I'm hopin' you've seen tha' tha' Morinozuka boy ain't whatcha thought he'd be, cha? And tha' yer better off with our souls aligned?"

At first, I just stared dumbly until Copy barked out a harsh laugh. "Have ya gone mute, Ake?" he snickered, tapping my temple with the butt of the knife hilt. "Oh come on; 's not like you've nevah seen me 'fore! Or 's it tha' I scare ya more IRL than in yer dreams?"

It was weird enough that my alter ego was OUTSIDE of my mind, and in the flesh no less, but it was worrying how he spoke with that weird slang and Levyn accent and... _did he just say 'IRL'?_

"Yea, I did," Copy grinned, tipping his head back to glance briefly at the black star filled, white sky, with a negative-color version of the Aurora Borealis(or the Northern Lights, if you prefer). It seemed that this part of human side of the Leverayx was half-flipped, since it was on the border between the Earth side and the Gray Zone.(3)

Basically, the Gray Zone is the place in between Femmirea and Earth. It's a place where anything and everything happens. Trading wares from Femmirea beings to Earthlings(those who believe in our race) and vise-versa, and fornicating - this happens a lot, and, unfortunately, to protect the half-bloods(for lack of better word AND it IS basically what they are) the Femmirea parent must take the child to keep them safe from the other worlds where they may never see their Earth parent. Learning some of the mixed arts that can only be possibly learned in the Gray Zone, channeling some deities in a somewhat safe environment, more shit that I'm too lazy to mention... But back to us...

_I didn't mean to say that out loud..._

I shook my head and tried to discreetly tug my hand free that Copy still held tightly, but he noticed and his grin widened. "Mah mah, Ake-chan, tha' ain't nice!"

A sudden thought struck me. Why hadn't I thought of this before? "Oi," I said, tilting my head to the side and watching with mild fascination as he mirrored me, all the while with that ever-present face-splitting grin, "Why do you call me 'Ake'?"

Copy's grin watered down into an amused smirk and a cocked brow. "Ain't it just fair ta continue ta call ya 'Ake' since you call me 'Copy'?"

My mouth opened, then snapped shut. He was my alter ego. My other half. Why wouldn't he know all this? Stupid question, indeed. "Well... It's not like I have anything else to call you!" I hissed, a bit defensively. "What, you want me to call you 'Alter Ego'? Lame. 'Black Eye'? Doesn't make sense. 'Pale Ski' - mmph!"

Copy shut me up quite effectively by - you guessed it.

Sticking the hilt of the knife in my mouth. (What? You thought it'd be self-cest yaoi? Hn?)

"How 'bout callin' me Kuro?" he cut in, tapping my left temple and nudging my side with his elbow. "'Copy' is really dull and flat, cha? In return, I guess I'll hafta call ya 'Ryu', ne?"

I spit out the knife so that my mouth could scrunch up to the side. "I guess. I mean, 'Ake' isn't _that _bad, but ya know. You're me. You can really call me either of the two..."

Cop - _Kuro_'s smile widened again and he nudged me again, chuckling. "Mah, you've always been a bit of the odd one outta tha bunch, haven't ya, Ake-kun?"

At this point, I had to return Kuro's toothy grin, attempting to hide it by turning to the fire... and the girls came into vision.

Naruki's pale lavender eyes bore holes into my skull, Ayano looking at me curiously. Both had servings of the... _soup_ in their hands, chopsticks protruding from the bowls.

"Ah, I gotta go, Ake-kun." Kuro gestured to my sister and her friend. "Dun seem like they like me all tha' much." His cold hand slipped out of mine and he placed a chaste, platonic kiss to my cheek, then my temple. "I'll see ya in a bit, cha?"

Then he disappated into the shadows and I was left to the girls.

Naruki was eating her soup and ignoring me, which I was quite thankful for. But Ayano was staring at me straight on, fingers steepled together and placed in her lap.

"Who were you talking to?" she inquired, ocean blue eyes darkening to a navy color.

"Uh... Myself." Smooth. Real smooth...

_Are you stupid? !_

_**Aw, c'mon, Ake-kun. Don't be so hard on yerself!**_

"You sure, Ryu-nii?" Ayano asked, leaning forward a bit more. "Because you seemed to obe interacting with yourself more than normal."

I scratched the back of my head nervously. "I... I guess I'm just... hungry?"

With one last worried glance, Ayano handed me a clay bowl filled with the soup and a pair of chopsticks.

"Or tired," she supplied, words clipped. "Eat, then you can sleep. No objections."

I nodded and started to eat, Kuro purring in content as warm broth and tender solids slid down my throat.

_Man, that green meat tastes good..._

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><p><span>3rd Person POV<span>

Ayano waited until her brother went to reside in the red colored cotton tent before leaping for her leather satchel and digging wildly through it.

She glanced at her purple haired friend before continuing to search. "You don't think he could already have found..." she trailed off uneasily.

Naruki blinked. "It's possible. He could have tapped into his Core Energy already, unconsiously. You've seen how he slept fitfully when he first stayed with us, yes? Maybe he visualizes things better in sleep. He could be a Dreamer."

"Or a Naturalist," Ayano said, "Like me and you."

"A Twiner is quite possible, as well," the purple eyed girl said. "Like Razi. There are plenty of them."

A sigh from the boy's twin. "I'm glad he's asleep and can't hear us. He needs his sleep to tap into his Core Energy longer."

But inside the tent, Ryu was very much awake and listening intently to his sibling's and friend's conversation. He sat in Kuro's lap, the white skinned boy running his long fingers through his tanned counterpart's hair in a comforting gesture.

"What are they talking about?" Ryu sighed, aggitated. Kuro pressed his lips to the side of Ryu's jaw.

"The different types of Soulers," he murmured. Then he laughed quietly. "In all honesty, I don't know what ya are, either. My knowledge, no matter how much more vast than yers it may be, is still limited."

Ryu let out another sigh and reached out to lift the flap of the tent a bit to peek out at the girls. Kuro's cold hand stopped him.

"It'd be best if ya didn't listen any longer."

The red haired teen let his eyes trail to the fur-carpeted floor. "And ya should get some sleep, Ake-kun..."

Ryu's brows furrowed, but lay down sideways. "I'll only fall asleep _after_ you explain what those are."

Kuro sighed. "Alri', then. Let's start with Energies.

"There are three types of Energies. Everyone has them. Even Humans. Tha first, Exerta Energy, is wha' Humans usually use, and even Ileemeses, our race, use it. It's just brute strength, really.

"Tha second, Core Energy, is wha' little ta none of tha humans can use. Illemeses tap into tha' Energy ta draw out their Guardians and use most of their real power.

"Tha last is Intra Energy. This is emergency reserve. Humans have just a very lil' bit of this, but they call it 'Adrenaline'. Stupid, right? But anyways, Intra Energy. If ya use too much, suck out too much, you could die. Intra Energy is like the little coatings of yer Soul. It's itensely strong, but you could be reduced to a hollow shell if you use more than allowed or if ya use it again too soon before the outer layer of the Intra Energy has regenerated, basically. 's best ta just NOT use it, or get tha' far inta it, y'know?

"Every person tha's from Femmirea has something called a Guardian, which would be me. Guardians are like tha Souls tha' are _created_ by tha Holder, which would be you. Guardians are tha protectors of tha Holder's soul, and they supply power, strength, the likes. They can also merge ta form an ultimate avatar, though it's risky.

"A Dreamer, which ya _may_ be, is a Souler who sees their Guardian in their dreams, their sleep. Their Guardians are usually more exotic or more plain than others, dependin' on their imagination; sometimes it's what they wanna be, or a person they'd like ta meet." Kuro grinned. "I'll let ya decide which one it is... IF ya really are a Dreamer. But then again... Dreamer's Guardians could just be alter egos. Dreamers' Souls are seen as heart-shaped.

"Naturalists, such as yer lil' sissy, who is water-based, and Naruki, who is wind-based, find their Guardian through nature. They usually see animals in their element. Ayano a wolf, Naruki a serpent. Naturalists' Souls are seen as regular ol' spheres. Not too excitin'.

"Now, Twiners, they're a bit more complicated. They're tha strongest of tha three, and it's 'cause they've developed both Dreamer and Naturalist powers. They're extremely rare, and aren't quote and quote 'diagnosed' as a Illemes's Souler. Incredibly dangerous, but in turn, are also almost uncontrolable. They can lose conciousness when they... _'turn'_, which is when they switch into their demon or animal form or whatever ya wanna call it, and then... let's not talk about tha', and NEVER have to witness it, cha? Let's just say there can be a LOT of destruction..."

Ryu held up a hand. "This... is all really overwhelming! M-Maybe we can continue this tomorrow?"

Kuro smiled sadly. "Sure, Ake-kun. But this is only tha beginning."

The red haired boy nodded weakly, turning over to cuddle into Kuro's chest as the pale skinned boy wrapped his arms around Ryu's waist. The tanned of the two's eyes fluttered closed and his breathing evened out instantly, his body too exhausted.

Kuro kissed the top of the slightly shorter boy's head and inhaled deeply, eyes closing.

"Goodnigh', Ryu-oujou."

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><p><em>(1) Um... the time here. <em>_NerdzRkewl__ was asking about the time in a recent chapter because the way it was written make it seem like Ryu was in the forest for three days, when I meant that three days total had passed from when he had left the mansion._

_(2) Voluntold. :| My mum often 'volunteers' us to do things, and MAKES us do it. *sigh*_

_(3) I'm going to make a Tumblr account for all of my fictions, and post the maps and pictures there! :)_

_DONE! I so wanna keep adding on to this one chapter, though. D: I'm unhappy with it. The middle and beginning's writing is inconsistant and has low quality._

_I love these two~ :heart: But don't you worry! A mini spoiler, but I'll think you'll like it a bit. In chapter 5.75, there is a MorixRyuxKuro threesome :3 Yummy~_

_Hope you liked it and look forward to chapter 5.5! :3 Coming hopefully very soon!_

_:heart: Kurami~_

_Oh yeah, and first person to review will get a oneshot where they can tell me any plotline for these characters:_

_Mori_

_Ryu_

_Kuro("Copy")_

_Ayano_

_Naruki_

_and it will be like a contest and prize! xD_

_So..._

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	6. 5 25 Inspire Me, Be Me, Kill Me

_Enjoyed chapter 5-point-oh? Then yer gunna be glad to know tha' we're back with chapter 5-point-twenty-five! ... Okay, that was lame._

_Um... yeah. I'm sorry. I lied. Kurami and her brother _will_ be in this. She just won't have a big part. A minor character in this story. Please don't hurt me! *cowers in corner* She won't even be in this chapter! Near the middle of the plotline or in the sequal!_

_Uh... Late chapter is late? Gomenasai!_

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><p><em>"Morinozuka,"<em>

_"Takahashi Ayano. I've come to take your brother."_

5.25. **Inspire Me,** _Be Me,_ Kill Me

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><p><em><span>Ryu's POV<span>_

A heavy weight settled on top of my body and I guessed it to be Kuro. But when I lethargically soaked in my surroundings, I was disoriented, relieved, and terrified at the same time.

For one, Kuro wasn't on top of me or anywhere in the tent, but didn't seem to be inside my mind. I couldn't rule out any place he could've gone. That made up disorientation.

But the possibility that Kuro was _never there_ brought a drop of relief warming my slightly chilled skin a bit. It all _could've_ been a hallucination from the soup Ayano gave me. Hell, I _could_ still be in a dream now, and my overly-active imagination _could _be just playing tricks on me. But notice. _COULD_. Ah... Now my relief is gone. Oh, wait...! ... Nope. It's gone.

Terrified because, well... At the moment, I'm face to face with a vicious, possibly rabies infected, snarling wolf with literally glowing silver fur. It was bigger than any wolf I'd ever seen, maybe three, four times bigger than a gray wolf.

The savage's cold, ice blue eyes glared at me with a malicious glint, calculating how long it would take to kill me and eat me. The dark yellow fangs that protruded from drooling black lips were sharper than the blade Kuro had the other night. Razor sharp claws on the animal's front paws dug into my shoulders, ripping through the thin longsleeve and sinking far into the flesh.

I doubted the thick red substance coating the wolf's maw and teeth was strawberry jelly. Just a wild guess.

So, having never woken up to this, I did what any person would.

I screamed bloody murder like a little girl for my younger sister.

In moments, Ayano had ripped the flap back, wielding a dangerous looking platinum sword and pointing it to the rump of the massive animal.

Buuuuut a second later, she broke out into a grin and set down her blade, patted her thighs, then held out her arms like the beast was a long-time-no-see friend.

"Getsuro!" she cried, eyes dancing with glee. The wolf turned without taking its claws out of my shoulders, effectively shredding the muscle there and emitting a loud, pained cry from me, and gazed at my sister. Leaping off me, it bounded across the very large tent over to my twin with bright eyes and tongue hanging out of its mouth.

It lunged at her, and before I could scream, Ayano hugged the wolf back, giggling and laughing like a child at Christmas who had gotten a puppy. She held it with a strength previously unknown to me, craddling it in her arms like a baby at it licked her face affectionately. My mouth hung open.

"I see you've met my pride and joy, my baby, Getsuro. He's a Destiny Wolf, the smaller cousin of the War Wolf," she grinned. Then she added, "He doesn't bite, don't worry."

_Yeah, but he stabs with his claws apprently..._

I blinked. Then again. Ayano only smiled. Silence hung in the air, make-believe flowers bouncing behind my sister, and disbelief weighing down on my head, making it loll to the side to stare at her.

I didn't know quite what to say, so I decided on "... OW?"

"Oh, that's nothing!" Holding the wolf with one arm, Ayano used the other to wave my pain off dismissively. "You should've seen what he did to my leg when I was still trying to completely contain him. Mutilated the whole thing clean off and if I didn't have healing powers -"

I held a hand up, feeling disturbed. "I don't think I really want to know the rest of _that_ story, and did you just say '_healing powers_'?"

She nodded. "Naruki does, too, but she doesn't use it too often."

"Uh huh. And you're just standing there with that oversized... _beast_, while I'm bleeding all over the floor. You're such a good healer. I'm impressed. You know, I'd clap, but my arms have kinda lost all their feeling and I'm starting to think I might never use my arms again. But it's alright. You can have your apparent reunion moment with your wolf, no problem," I said with sarcastic nonchalantness.

Ayano's grin widened and she rolled her eyes, gently setting down her pet. "Come on, you big baby. If you can get up, come outside to where we had the firepit last night."

I sighed and sat up, swiveling my legs under me so I could stand up easier and without my arms. "Got it," I responded. "Now get that _thing _out of my sight."

Ayano pouted and picked the silver animal up murmuring 'spoilsport' and me being something of a cabbage? What?

She kissed the wolf's nose as she exited the tent, saying, quite loudly and I supposed for me to hear, "He's always liked cats. I guess that's why he's a masochist."

An annoyed vein throbbed in my forehead. "I can hear you, ya'know," I yelled out to her.

Stepping out into the bright summer sunshine, she called back, "I know!"

I snorted and glanced around one last time before starting for the entrance and exit to the tent to follow my sister.

_Wherever you are, Kuro, please be safe._

* * *

><p><span>Third Person POV<span>

So preoccupied with looking normal and unworrying to the girls, Ryu didn't hear the nearly inaudible,

_**I will, Ake-oujo.**_

* * *

><p>Kuro materialized out of thin air, VANS clad feet silently landing on the hard packed dirt of the front yard of a certain dark haired highschool senior's hideout.<p>

Cracking his knuckles, the alter ego started for the darkly painted building, midnight black eyes ablaze with fury.

_No one_ was going to take his Prince away from him. If completely obliterating the Morinozuka boy from existance meant he'd die too, so be it.

But if he couldn't have his Souler, then no one would.

* * *

><p><em><span>Ryu's POV<span>_

"OWOWOWOWOWOW!" I repeated the mantra from the time Ayano touched my wounds with glowing light blue fingertips, repairing and regenerating lost muscle, flesh, skin, and a fractured clavicle and a hard pressure burrowed into the gouges.

"Oh, calm down already," Ayano chided me, putting a little more Energy into her digits and turning them almost a light purple before bringing the color back to blue again. "You haven't felt _real_ pain."

"And I don't - ouch! - plan on ever feeling this 'real pain'," I grit out, digging my short nails into my palms to distract himself. When the pain eased and slowly melted into a warm comfort, like a fire on a the coldest winter day of the year, I let out a deep breath. "Aaaah..."

"Feel better now, oh Masochist-one?" Ayano teased, letting her healing touch linger over my shoulders a few seconds more before dropping her hands in her lap and threading her fingers through my hair again and again, gently gripping every once in a while(1).

Sighing blissfully, I leaned into Ayano's touch. "Shut up," I murmured half-heartedly.

Ayano's bubbling laugh echoed through the forest and she retracted her hands from the red tresses.

"Well, come on," she said, poking me in the ribs and earning a mildly annoyed grunt, "Let's go wake Naruki up then we can eat and go swimming."

Hoisting himself up, I whined, "But I don't like swimming!"

"It's warm," she singsonged.

Marroon eyes widened and I raced after my sister, a rare childish grin lighting up my face. Then I faltered and almost stumbled.

"Wait," I called, "Did you just say '_wake Naruki up_'? ! Are you fuckin' KIDDING ME?"

"Oh, she's warmed up a little! She's not _that_ much of a demon!"

I snorted humorlessly. "Yeah, 'cause she's _worse_..."

* * *

><p><span>Third Person POV<span>

"What are you?"

Kuro wasn't surprised to hear the words formed by those pale lips of the taller boy.

"Half of one you love," Kuro said evenly, perched on the open windowsil and staring coolly back at the slightly glowering highschool senior. "Do you not recognize my features?" All traces of any Leveryn accent was erased from his voice.

Mori simply stared back. _There's no way that could be Ryu's Guardian. I won't allow it._

"Ah, but I am his Guardian, and there's no stopping it," the pale skinned boy murmured, hopping off the window. Slipping a half filled carton of cigarettes out of his white skinny jeans pocket, taking one out and putting the white box back in his pocket. Snapping his fingers as if flicking a lighter, Kuro stared at the taller male.

A flame finally dancing across the tip of his index finger, Kuro held the fire to the end of the cancer stick and stuck it in his mouth.

"I didn't know Ryu smoked," Mori muttered.

"He doesn't," Kuro informed, taking a deep drag and releasing the cloud of smoke from his mouth as he talked. "I do. But he will soon."

Mori pushed back the chair he sat in, standing to his full height. "Leave, demon." Holding out his hand, fingers splayed and palm out, ribbons of violet energy began to swirl into a small ball, glowing with immense power. "Or I will make you leave."

Eyebrows raising slightly at the display of forbidden magic, Kuro smirked amusedly.

"What rebeliousness you have, teme, to use Femmirean magic. I admit, I'm surprise you haven't fainted from exerting Core Energy," Kuro mock-praised.

But in reality, Mori was struggling to keep this power from going haywire. A drop of sweat rolled down the back of his neck as he tried to evenly distribute his almost artificial Core Energy over the stretch of time Kuro was taking to finish his cigarette. His head was beginning to feel like and he felt nausious, his bones were melting into solely bone marrow, his muscles were unwinding, and his brain was turning to mush. But he couldn't show weakness. He had to win, for Ryu.

"You and me, one on one, let's duel." Mori could hardly believe what he was saying. Fighting Ryu's Guardian when he could barely maintain a ball of foreign energy was suicide. "Last one standing gets Ryu."

Kuro scowled. "I don't believe in such," he said._** I'm such a liar**_. "Whoever wins his heart gets him."

Mori sighed and Kuro got the message. "But, we Femmireans have respect and we are best known for our farirness. So, if you wish for a duel, we shall. But ready yourself, Morinozuka, for once we start, I will not back down."

Mori's body shuddered and his ball of energy was extinguished. Kuro scowled again. "After you are recovered and have trained responsibly. In three suns, you will be sorry you challenged me."

The tall teen's legs felt like jelly, and he silently braced himself on the table to keep from falling. "Thank you," he muttered reluctantly. "But I must appologize as well, for it is _you_ who will be sorry you underestimated me."

Kuro frowned. "So be it."

And in a human sized wisp of black smoke and darkness, Kuro was gone. Mori scrubbed his hands over his face and patted his pockets until he located his cell phone.

Hitting his number 1 speed dial button, the male brought the device to his ear, hearing the childish, high voice on the other end.

"Takashi? What is it?"

"Mitskuni, come over and help me train. I've dug myself to death..."

* * *

><p><em><span>Ryu's POV<span>_

I floated languidly on my back, fingers tapping the surface of the calm lake water periodically, creating more ripples every time.

My mind wandered to the two interfering men in my life.

Kuro... I wasn't sure what he thought of me. But I do know that he had thought I'd been asleep when he kissed me. Not on the lips, but... Three kisses in one night. Shouldn't that say something? And where the hell had he gone?

And Mori. What about him? I hadn't thought of him in a while, and the last time I did, I had fled his house.

_If_ Kuro indeed had a thing for me, how would it all turn out in the end?

"Ryu! Nii-sama, are you still swimming?" Ducking under the water and rising back up again, I was greeted by the sight of my dripping sister wringing her hair out with a towel wrapped around her and tucked under her arms. She was dressed simply in a periwinkle silk shirt and a shiny, blue hide skirt. Considering where we were, it wouldn't be a surprise if the hide was natural. "There you are. Come on. We have to get lunch started."

Getting out of the lake, I rolled my shoulers a few times as a slight remaining stiffness still remained. "Mm."

Sensing my distractedness, Ayano slipped her hand into mine. "Whatcha thinking about?" she asked, resting her head on my shoulder.

I hesitated. I didn't quite know how she'd react to me finding my Guardian already, and how this whole... Thing would work out. How would I tell her?

But before I could censor myself and say 'nothing', words spilled out of my mouth. "Ayano, if two people like you, one of them being just a suspicion, and both probably wouldn't get along, who do you chose?"

She stopped and immediately thought I should've just kept my mouth shut. But instead of getting aggitated, my baby sister turned her head to me. "It's cheesy, but..." She sighed. "Do what your heart tells you. It's your life. You can choose who you give your heart to."

I stayed silent, only giving her smaller hand a squeeze that said 'thank you'.

"I have to go make lunch," Ayano said suddenly. "Dry up and change into regular clothes then come back here for the picnic."

I nodded and kissed the top of her head then sent her on her way.

I waited until she'd gone until I groaned, what I'd felt on her left hand making my heart sink.

_And she thought that I didn't notice that engagement ring._

"My baby sister is getting married..."

* * *

><p><strong>The next morning<strong>

* * *

><p>"Takashi," Hani said seriously, staring up at his younger cousin. "What happened?"<p>

Mori lifted himself to sit on the marble kitchen counter, folding his hands together and settling them in his lap. "Ryu's Guardian. I challenged him over Ryu. It was stupid of me."

Hani frowned. "This conflict between the Morinozukas and the Takahashis is becoming ridiculous. It's been going on since the start of Earth and Femmirea."

The taller of the two sighed heavily. "I know."

The elder's frown deepened. "Let's go train, Takashi."

"Aa."

* * *

><p><strong>Night time<strong>

* * *

><p>"Takashi."<p>

The gray eyed boy stared at his smaller cousin, panting heavily. "Yes?"

"You should get some rest," Mitskuni said quietly, looking up to the younger of the two. "It's late."

Mori stood to his full height from where he was bent over near his cottage. "I have something to do, first."

Hani nodded and averted his eyes to the floor, not bothering to turn his head to watch his cousin make his way to the path that lead to Lervera Forest.

"Be careful, Takashi."

* * *

><p><strong>[The Forest]<strong>

* * *

><p>Ryu rubbed his eyes tiredly, struggling to latch onto Naruki's emotionless voice as she continued in her Xia-Nym language lesson.<p>

"_Zan j'ya_," Naruki said. "Power."

Ryu yawned. "_Zan j'ya_," he repeated.

"Good," the purple haired girl said with very mild praise coloring her tone. "_Vachi_. Fine."

"_Vachi_."

"_Micha_. Help."

"_Micha_." Another yawn. Ayano was already asleep, by now.

"_Da'rai_. Rain."

"_Da'_r_ai_."

Naruki frowned and tapped Ryu's head. "Roll your 'r's," she reminded him, almost haughtily.

The redhead groaned. "_Da'rai_," he mumbled.

"_Va'n'guado no_," Naruki enunciated, smirking slightly. "Ruler."

Ryu's mouth opened slightly. "That... is long."

"Not particularly," Naruki said, waving it off. "Now repeat."

"_Va... Van guard_?" The purplette rolled her eyes and poked the boy in the ribs before adding another dry twig to the campfire.

"_Va'n'guado no_."

"_Van guardo no?_"

Naruki shook her head. "No 'r'."

Ryu's brows furrowed. "_V... Va'n'guado no_."

"Finally..." Naruki glanced down Ayano's neatly scripted list in English, scanning down to the next word. "_Michica_. Angel."

"_Michica_."

"_Fyu'kai'cha._ Demon. It's long because it literally means 'winged one from Hell'."

"Fuuuuu-... _Fyu... chai... ka_."

The girl shook her head at her friend's brother. "You switched the last two. _Fyu'kai'cha._"

"Oh. _Fyu'kai'cha_."

"_Tenma_. Alright."

"_Tenma_."

Another glance at the small paper card. "_Akyan_. 'Love' or 'mate'."

Ryu froze. "_A... Ak... Akyan._" Standing from the rock he sat on, the redhead started for the large red tent that sheltered him. "Let's continue tomorrow. I'm tired."

Naruki sighed. "I know." She waved him away. "Be gone, I suppose," she sighed again. "Get some sleep, baka."

"Thanks, Ruki-chan."

As Ryu lifted the flap to the tent, Naruki called out, "You should visit him tomorrow."

The boy froze. "I thought you guys hated him," he sighed, turning his head to look at the purplette over his shoulder.

Naruki shrugged blankfacedly. "We do, but Ayano wants you to be happy. Even if she _does_ hate him."

The redhead frowned. "Just '_she_'?"

His friend shrugged again. "I don't really give any care for this kind of grudge or 'battle', if you so wish to call it." Then she tipped her head to the side, as if listening or pondering. "I sense your Guardian wishes for you to be happy as well, despite any hatred. He cares for you."

Ryu blushed. "But he's me!"

Naruki seemed the slightest bit troubled. "He may be the picture of _you_, but your Guardian is still a being of his own mind. You understand me?"

The male swallowed thickly, obviously _not_ understanding everything she had said. "Uh huh. Night, Ruki-chan." He spirinted into the tent, the flaps fluttering behind him.

Naruki looked down as a serpent with hunter green and black plumed wings slithered to her feet, curling around her leg as a form of trying to catch her attention.

The girl sighed and unraveled the reptile from her limb and allowed it to re-curl itself around her arm. "Just be careful, Ryu," she whispered.

* * *

><p>Inside the maroon and red tent, a raging fire brewed; literally.<p>

With eyes closed to the world, Ryu screamed in frustration, the thick material of the tent oddly soundproof. Angrily flailing his arms, the male shot tendrils of fire out of his arms, ribbons of flame curling out of his shoulders and shooting down his arms. A swiftly swirling blaze engulfed his lithe form and whipping his hair in all directions. And the creator of this heat-filled cacophony was oblivious to it all.

The sound of running feet was all that was needed to break Ryu's concentration and make the fire vanish as if it were never there.

Opening his eyes, Ryu saw his sister, eyes wild, as she nearly tore open the tent flap.

"What's wrong?" she cried, rushing toward him. "I heard you scream."

Ryu flushed. "Nothing," he sighed, plopping down on the hard packed dirt floor. "Upset, maybe. Nothing really wrong."

Ayano looked as if she wanted to say something, but instead silenced herself by kissing her brother's forehead. "Get some sleep," she advised.

"That's what Naruki said." Ryu blew out a breath and crawled on all fours to his sleeping bag, suddenly tired. He stripped down to his boxers before slipping inside, fast asleep within moments.

His blue eyed sister stood quietly and extinguished a candle with her fingers, before looking up at the top of the tent, where a light still crackled. Pursing her lips together, Ayano drew water out of the air around her and brought it up to the fabric that had caught fire, smothering it with the (formerly) vapor, a hiss escaping the now dead flame.

Walking out of the tent, she exhaled deeply. "Don't think I didn't see those lights, Nii-sama."

A twig snapped before she could make it to her own tent, and Ayano could tell that whoever had stepped on it had done so on purpose by the way there was no falter in the wavelengths. Of course, she knew who it was and where he was, but still her voice caught in her throat when a double-edged knife pressed against her jugular vein and two fingers pressed gently but firmly against her forehead.

"Morinozuka," she gasped out, feeling the pressure on her head intensify slightly.

"Takahashi Ayano." The deep voice was nearly a whisper. "I've come to take your brother."

Dispite the disposition she was in, the girl growled. "Never. Just because you know a way to hold back some of my Exerta Energy doesn't mean that you've a hold of all of it, and you certainly can't take my Core Energy."

Dark eyes widened. How could he have forgotten all those? A cold wave of riverwater hit him in the face and Mori was thrown backwards. How could he have _also_ forgotten how close to water they were? ! "I'd advise you to leave now, Morinozuka."

Pride wounded and clothes soaked, Mori rose from the ground and sprinted towards the exit of the forest. A chilly wind blew past him, but he couldn't feel anything. The overwhelming urge to want to use his 'stolen' Exerta Energy burned his soul.

_Ryu... Ryu... Ryu..._

* * *

><p><em>Shitty chapter is shitty.<em>

_It was originally suppost to be Ryu training to fight in a dream, but I couldn't lay it out properly or anything, and the chapter title doesn't make any sense or relate to anything, does it? Yeah, I thought not. And it's not as long as I'd hoped._

_Now that I think more about it, I don't think the smut will be until much later. This drama is just too... *squeal* and I HAVE to get through all the parts I need to before I settle down to the lemons. You might have fluff between all three of our boys, just not very much(if I DO put in at all). Sorry for those who were looking forward to smut._

_Um... I'll remind you guys that I've been lazy and haven't found a beta yet. BUT! I will start looking after this is updated!_

_Oh yeah, and the contest is still going, and there will be more contests of different sorts relating to this fic._

_Ja'ne-_

_Kurami_


	7. 5 5 Stand in the Rain

_I really want this to be longer. I love this story~ :heart: My other Ouran story(het) called 'Kiss Kiss' might be co-authored by __yuki-bun__ with her OCs :)_

_AAAAND on a much lower note this chapter is fucking shit. I hate it so much. I just want to jump to the part where all the REAL drama starts OTL Sorry for the waits, guys! TT_TT And I'm afraid I'm making Mori WAY too OOC! *crawls into a hole and dies*_

* * *

><p><em>"So I'm guessing you've seen it already."<em>

5.5 Stand in the Rain

* * *

><p><strong>Two Days Later<strong>

* * *

><p><span>Third Person<span>

In the sweltering midheat of the late June day, a figure dressed heavily in obsidian plated armor materialized in curls of pure shadow, darkly bright eyes full of eager anxiousness and the wanting to fight.

As he unsheathed his dagger from his side, a hooded figure rose from where it sat. The sun was directly overhead, casting long shadows over his eyes.

"So you've come?" the deep voice said, exhaling deeply. Kuro stepped delicately over to him, feet gliding over the hot dirt ground, until he was a foot away from the taller of the two.

"Yes," he sighed. "I hope you're rested and ready. I don't take well to those who don't give me a fair fight, then give excuses." He ran his empty hand through Mori's hair, pushing the hood off his head and feeling the soft tressed between his fingers. The senior's dark gray eyes were closed, lest he see the resemblance between his love and the demon and back away from the challenge, forfeiting his chance to win Ryu over.

"I'm ready." Mori's fingers glowed dark blue and Kuro was expecting the same dark energy to form and slowly destroy Mori's soul. But instead, the taller boy surprised him imensely by collecting pale yellow and white rose petals that pieces themselves together, dark eyes shining and being flooded with white and gold.

Mori smirked at Kuro's bewildered and slightly frightened expression. "And this time, I'll give you a fight you'll never forget."

Kuro managed a grin, although a just a bit shaky. "I'm looking forward to it, Morinozuka."

* * *

><p><strong>The Forest<strong>

* * *

><p>"I'm borrrrred~ There's nothing to do!" Ryu whined, flicking a red lighter continuously until his sister snapped it shut and snatched it away. "HEY!"<p>

Ayano snorted. "Oh _please_, spare me," she sighed in slight annoyance. "All you've been doing for the past couple days is sit around and mope with your _stupid_ lighter! Why? I don't know!"

The boy sighed dramatically and lay back on the hard ground, arms and legs splayed tiredly. "But you're not DOING anything!"

His sister stared at him, arm stretched completely out as she pointed to Naruki who was sitting to Ryu's far right, near the tents and reading a book in ancient Xia-Nym. "Then YOU go practice Xia-Nym," Ayano suggested.

Ryu stared up at her with a derp face. "Nope!"

The blue-eyed girl growled and leaned down to smack her brother's head. "Go!"

"Agh! Fine!" Ryu raised his hands in surrender. "Just shut up already!" But even with all his forced aggression, anxiety seemed to poke him in the eye with a sharp stick. _Ayano's engagement_, it seemed to laugh. _Your baby sister's getting _married! "But I get to study on my own, alright? I don't like having Naruki teach me."

Without waiting for an answer, Ryu ran off into the woods, feeling the cool winds blowing through his hair and flicking the longer strands around his face and in his eyes.

Ayano stared slightly bewilderedly at her brother. "What just happened?"

Naruki gave the most miniscule of all shrugs. "Hades if I know."

Ayano pursed her lips tightly and made her way back into her tent, twisting her engagement ring anxiously as she went. "I'll be back," she said. "Just going to the river."

"Why?"

The blue eyed girl exhaled deeply through her nose. "Getsuro and the pack are bored. I'm setting them out to get excersise."

* * *

><p><span>With Mori and Kuro at Mori's Cabin-thing...<span>

* * *

><p>Kuro panted as heavily as his competetor, both fighting to catch their breaths. Kuro sheathed his knife and Mori's fingers slowly faded its white and yellow lights.<p>

"As a Guardian, I'll admit," the shadowy copy of Ryu grinned, "you're pretty strong." Then he added with a small laugh. "For a human!"

Mori wanted to scowl. Why was this guy being so carefree? But upon further inspection and a bit of heavy concentrating to glimpse Kuro's soul, the Guardian was obviously troubled, a bit hurt, mentally weary, and saddened.

As Mori opened his mouth to speak, watery howls cut through the sticky afternoon warmth. Kuro looked around with a moment of panic flashing through ink-black eyes. He cursed darkly in a foreign language.

"Forgive me, Morinozuka," Kuro apologized, words rushed, "but we will have to continue this duel another time. Right now, Ryu's sister's wolves are - for lack of better word - hounding me. Farewell, Human." And with an annoyed look, Kuro dissapated into black cells, disappearing upwards. Mori had to admit it was kinda cool. Like a video game.

The howls cut off abrupty, and sloshing water took its place. Mori looked up to see a worm-amoeba-like thing darting through the quickly darkening sky. Instead of a nucleus(1), the creature had a silver wolf controling it in the center. The wolf moved, and so did the blue creature.

The wolf narrowed its ice blue eyes at Mori before tipping its head back and howling soulfully, morphing the amoeba shape into a canine's. It barked and then disappeared as the moon began to show over the mountaintops.

The tall senior frowned, and returned inside his cabin to grab a dark cloak. _How strange._

Shaking his head free of any thoughts, Mori sighed. "One more trip," he muttered under his breath. "And I'll make sure of it that Ayano doesn't stop me."

* * *

><p><em><strong>Ryu... I'll make sure that I <strong>_**will**_** be the one to win you over. No human will make you happy like I can.**_

* * *

><p><strong>The Forest<strong>

* * *

><p>Ryu sat on the riverbank, feet in the water and chest bare. He sighed as Ayano approached him from behind. He looked over his shoulder to see his sister with a - surprisingly - porcelain plate, piled high with crispy rice cakes. Bonita rice cakes, if he remembered correctly. The drizzled golden honey seemed shiny in the moonlight.<p>

"What's the occassion?" Ryu asked quietly, spirits down and drowned in the river. He wanted to say it with more bite, but his tone failed him. "_Engagement _party?"

Ayano flinched. "So I'm guessing you've seen it already," she sighed. "Right?"

"Been a while," Ryu responeded, taking one of the rice cakes and biting into the dense stickiness. The honey stuck to his incisors, and he grimaced. It was hard to get off.

Wanting to change the subject, Ayano said, "I predict it'll rain tonight," she said. Ryu glanced at her. It seemed to have distracted him. Again. He'd never liked dealing with things he was thoroughly upset with.

Ryu snorted out a humorless sylable of a laugh as he glanced back to somewhere beyond the river and Ayano sat next to him, dipping her tan feet into the water. Ayano took a rice cake for herself. "You know," Ryu murmured, "I've always wanted to kiss in the rain. Especially at night." He shook his head. "Stupid, right?"

Ayano smiled. "Oh, I'm sure he'll come along." Her words were a little clipped, a little forced. Like her smile. "You'll get your chance."

Ryu choked on his rice cake and blushed. "W-what?" he coughed. "I don't like guys!"

Ayano gave him a look. "Really?" she deadpanned. "Are you fucking _serious_?"

Ryu kept coughing into his fist but sent her a look that said 'What do you think? !' When his fit ceased, his sister smacked the back of his head. "You're an idiot. Denial is the first sign," she sighed, getting up. Glancing skyward, she smiled again, this time more naturally. "Looks like it'll rain in about a minute."

The redhead just looked down to stare at the rushing water. "Wonderful." Ayano patted her brother's head awkwardly and left with a 'goodnight'.

Ryu smiled as he felt someone behind him.

"What're you doing here?" he chuckled.

He could hear the quiestest of smirks. "I missed you."

Feeling a little feisty, he brought his hands back to grip the person's tee-shirt collar. "Oh? Did you now?"

"And I heard you want to kiss in the rain?"

Ryu giggled. "And if I do?"

"Then I can grant your wish. Better than any human ever can."

Ryu turned around. He couldn't lie. There was attraction between him and this man, he just didn't know if it was solely outward attraction yet.

Ryu's breath ghosted across the other male's lips. "Then grant it."

Lips sealed and rain poured, while a figure dressed in a shadowy hood watched with pained eyes and clenched fists watched from the concealment of the trees.

"So that's how it's going to be."

* * *

><p><em>Um... like I said earlier. Crappy cliffe, and shitty writing. But I promise that this will be the shortest chapter of the whole *SPOILER* trilogy! Review?<em>

_I've been watching Ouran panels(because I adore Travis Willingham(Mori) and Vic Mignogna(Tamaki)) and rewatching Ouran where it shows more of Mori, so I'll try to get back into the groove of things..._

_One last part to this... thing, then we'll move on to the real chapter 6 :)_

_~Kurami~_


	8. 5 75 One Night

_Crap. I'm ashamed with this, currently... OTL Nothing from the past chapters make sense anymore. I lied. _This_ is possibly the shortest chapter. IDK._

_Anyways... Ready for smut and talking? ... That didn't sound as good as I hoped it would. Because smut will not be good. It will be sucky._

_Also, I will be taking a break from 'Dark Horse' for a little while after this chapter, at least until I get a little further in my new fic, 'Little Miss Stony', which is an Avengers fic, and get ideas for 'Dark Horse' and lay out a real plan for both. I'm actually thinking of very little to non-existant smut in later chapters and the fics after this. I'm serious... -ly getting stupider by the second :I I really just want to skip to all the real drama._

_Will most likely be resuming 'Dark Horse' somtime before the end of 2012... Hopefully. You cannot rush inspiration._

* * *

><p>5.75 One Night<p>

* * *

><p><strong>The Forest<strong>

_By the river_

* * *

><p><em><span>Ryu's POV<span>_

"Come back with me." He's looked at me tenderly, lips curved upwards in a loving smile.

"Is it possible?" I whispered. I wanted to kiss him again. But I refrained. You don't know how it feels like to want someone so much to the point that you'd do anything just to be one being, if only for one night. I didn't even know to what extent it would reach to. Not love, that was for sure. "I don't want you to get hurt and - "

He pressed a finger to my lips. His skin was as pale as it was the first time I left without much warning. "I'll be fine. Just come back with me."

I smiled at him and kissed him again. Electricity ran down my spine, rain poured over my hair and soaked my clothes. When I pulled back, I gazed up at him shyly. "So does that mean we're good?"

He laughs. "Yes, Ryu."

He picked me up to carry me in his arms, bridal style and I cuddled his neck. "Let's fuck when we get back."

He chuckles and glances at me with dark eyes sparkling with amusement. "What?" I giggled. "I'm horny." He smiled at me and I had to kiss him once again. "I think I love you. Not sure."

His body tensed but then relaxed almost instantly. "Then I'm willing to wait for you."

"Thank you, Mori."

* * *

><p>In a flurry of kisses, nips, and a couple hickies, we somehow made it back to Mori's cabin. Cottage? House? I don't really know...<p>

He pinned me to the door while we kissed, trying to unlock it while still having his eyes closed and at this pace, we'd never get to his room in time. So I knocked his hand away from the lock and slipped a hair pin(it was Ayano's. I took it when I was bored.) from my pocket, bent it, and stuck it in the lock, moving the pins inside and successfully making the both of us fall backwards as the navy portal swung open.

A puddle of water was squeezed out of our drenched clothes and hair, forming underneath us.

I shuddered as Mori's tongue entered my mouth and a freezing chill of wind blew through the door.

He pulled back and panted hot breaths against my neck, "Cold?"

I nodded and he picked me up again, shutting the door with his foot and carrying me to the bathroom. Ravenously attacking my neck, Mori sucked hard at my collarbone, a moan escaping my lips. A bruise would most likely be left, and a dark one at that.

Once we were in the bathroom that was in Mori's room(not the one across the hall), I barely had time to take in the blue and green tiling before Mori was basically ripping off my clothes. First my shirt, then my pants, and the rest followed from there.

Pushing me into the ebony tub, Mori stripped off his own clothes and stepped in after me, a devious glint in his eyes.

I followed his every move with hooded eyes. "You gunna make me beg, or are you my slave for the night?"

Mori chuckled darkly and pulled me up by my hands, nipping my bottom lip. "Oh, I'll make you cry, and scream my name, and _beg_ me to just let you cum. But I won't let you."

I shuddered. _How did he know dirty talk turns me on?_ "Then _do _it, _Takashi_."

Full lips attached over my pulse point in my neck and I gasped when sharp teeth bit down. "Oh my - you're not -"

"_Mine_," Mori growled possessively, lapping up blood from a half-ring of punctured teeth marks. "_All mine_."

My head swirled with arousal and I grabbed around the senior's hips to pull him flush against me, grinding out erections together as I leaned up slightly to suck at his collarbone.

"By the name of _Aphrodite_, you're so hot," I husked, jerking my hips. "Fuck me."

Mori frowned for a brief moment before he masked it with another smirk. "Don't want to. Not yet." Flipping me over so that the side of my face met cold, blue and green tile, he grabbed a bottle of shampoo.

Let me tell you one thing. If you _ever_ have shower sex, do not, and I mean do _not ever_ use shampoo, even for the kinkiest of you. Unless you're fearfully masochistic. It stings like a bitch.

Two fingers were in me faster than I could register, the shampoo acting as lube. Throwing my head back, I cried out, droplets of water flicking off the ends of the strands of my hair.

"More!"

Panting heavily now, I grabbed his hand and pulled his digits out of me, turning back around. "Fuck. Me. _Now_," I hissed, pressing back against him.

"So demanding," Mori chuckled, slowly pushing into me, drawing any and all breath held in my lungs out in one pained curse. "You should've waited."

I shook my head and babbled incohertly, basically smashing myself against him and closing my eyes. "_I don't care_."

Everything went by too fast, too heatedly, and I missed it all, because when I opened my eyes again, it was late afternoon, and I was sore all over, dried and laying under the covers in Mori's bedroom with only my boxers on. The dark haired senior was sound asleep next to me, one arm thrown over my waist.

And then suddenly, I didn't want to be there. Or with my sister. Or anything. I didn't know what it was, but I just knew I couldn't stay in that bed. Not exactly because I felt guilty or anything, but I was hit was a strong, sudden wave of nausea.

I threw the covers back and raced into the bathroom, puking into the toilet. It wasn't exactly a first; I'd gotten stomach sickness a few times, but usually it kinda built up. Like a stomach ache first, or just being unable to hold my food. This time, I just felt completely horrible.

I groaned and curled into the fetal position with my feverish cheek on the cool tile. I stayed there for a few minutes before Mori woke and found me there on the bathroom floor. He rushed to my side and placed a hand on my shoulder.

"Are you alright?" I whimpered softly and shook my head while he rubbed my back. I really wanted to throw up again. I was sore all over, with pain intensified in my abdomen.

He picked me up and carried me to the bed. I slipped under the blanket, grabbed one of the pillows and hugged it to my stomach. Mori sat down on the bed next to me, slipping on a pair of jeans and tugging a highcollared black jacket with white trim over his head without putting a shirt on first.

"I'll be right back, Ryu," he murmured. "I'll be in the kitchen if you need me."

"Stay," I pleaded, voice a whisper. Mori pursed his lips and ran a hand through my sweat-matted hair.

"I'm calling in a favor from a friend, love." Then he stood up and left the room. The sun's warm rays fell on my face and I turned a little more towards the door, avoiding the light from hitting my eyes.

I don't remember falling asleep, but everything suddenly blinked back into existance. A man with wire-framed glasses was standing over me, checking my pulse with a stethoscope around his neck. He looked vaugely familiar.

"Do I know you?" I rasped, voice scratchy with sleep. Mori was standing against the wall by the door, arms crossed.

The man didn't so much as look at me. "I'm Dr. Ootori. I don't believe you and _I_ have met, but I have an inkling that you and my youngest son, Kyoya, have met."

I nodded slowly as I try to piece together an image of a younger man, somewhere around my age. "Okay." Oh, hey. That one guy from Mori's... host club group, was it?

Suddenly, the doctor sighed and shrugged. "You seem to have contracted a stomach virus, but it's nothing too severe. Just stick to foods like jello, crackers, bread. Things that won't upset your stomach. And plenty of fluids."

I hummed. "Thank you, Doctor."

"Morinozuka." The man nodded at Mori, who dipped his head respectively.

When Dr. Ootori was out of the cottage, Mori came to sit beside me. He ran a hand through my hair before placing a kiss to my forehead. "Get sleep," he said lowly. I smiled weakly and sighed through my nose. "Hope you get better soon."

I rolled over on my side and closed my eyes, bringing my knees to my chest as another pang of pain pierced my abdomen. "Fuck. I'll talk to Ayano" - yawn - "about this..." Another yawn. "Tomorrow..."

* * *

><p><em>Bleh... No beginning quote, because nothing is happening D: Sixth chapter will pick up on real substance. Ciao ciao...<em>

_Can anyone guess what's happening here? Extra cupcake sprinkles for you if you do :)_

_~Kurami~_


	9. Breathe and Believe, It'll Come

_I CAN'T TAKE IT ANYMORE! I HAVE TO UPDATE DAMMIT!_

_*flips a table and sighs in relief* THANK GOD! _Little Miss Stony_ is still my main project/focus ATM, but _Dark Horse_ is __**right **__under it._

_Someone listen to all the Punk Goes Pop albums. They're amazing._

_:) Enjoy, Puppets and Dolls!_

* * *

><p>6. Breathe and Belive, It'll Come<p>

"Welcome back, brother dear."

* * *

><p>I stare, squinting into the orange sunset with my knees pulled up to my chest. Earbuds are stuffed in my ears and all four albums of <em>Punk Goes Pop<em> blast out, vibrating right down through my bones. Or were. I finished all the songs a while ago, and I just like the feeling of the earbuds.

"I still throw up in the mornings, and I've gotten cranky. I don't feel like eating anything, though," I say aloud. To myself, really, at this point. Kuro is impossible to reach. I've had dreams. He tries to talk to me. We're under the sea, hair moving freely. He can breathe, but I can't, and I panic. He only looks at me sympathetically, and shakes his head. Turns away. And swims.

I can't follow.

"Mori's worried," I continue to speak to the sun, "but I have conflicting feelings.

"I mean, I like him, right? But I don't feel _right_. And it has nothing to do with the old war. Nothing! Instead of eating, I've been writing songs at his piano. Why he has one when I've never seen or heard him play, I don't know, but it's convenient.

"Most of them aren't finished, but a few are. Like one called 'Breathe'. I think you'd like that one, whoever-the-hell-I'm-actually-speaking-to. Did you know Ayano's always wanted another pair of twins in our family? Question: Are our parents still alive? Do you know? Oh, did you also know I ramble a lot when I talk?"

"Yes, I do."

I swear I jumped so high I could've possibly stretched myself a bit taller. I whirl around to see a smiling Kuro leaning against the wall of the cabin, arms folded across his chest, which is clothed with a black graphic tee. I glance at the intricate swirls before looking up at his face suspiciously. "I thought you didn't want to see me again."

Kuro snorts and pushes off the wall with his elbows. "And where'd ya speculate tha'?"

I shrug, take a quick look at the door. Mori could come out any minute to call me in for a meal that we both know I won't go to eat. "Dunno. Just thought. You know who it's because."

"Ake, y'know that I love ya 'nough ta seriously not give a shit 'bout tha' shit." I frown.

"Kuro." My brain wishes for my tone to sound like a warning, but it comes out exasperated. "I'll make him respect you if you respect him."

"I don't care if he respects me er not," Kuro said. "I'm not bein' nice ta it."

"Him," I correct.

"_It_," Kuro insists. "You should come back with me to the forest. Ayano's worried." Then he melts into my shadow unexpectedly as Mori opens the door. It feels like something akin to getting hit by a train while getting kicked in the balls, only to be exploded into a million pieces by C4, and still be alive in the end. In short, it hurts like hell. I choke on air.

"Ryu? Are you feeling hungry at all?"

"No." Not my voice; Kuro's. He's trying to imitate me, and he's doing fairly well. I sound sick, though. Not stomach sick, like I've been, but more of a sore throat.

Mori purses his lips and steps over to place a kiss at my hairline. "Alright. I love you."

"Love you, too," I call, and this time, it's really me. Mori smiles tightly and heads back inside. Kuro separates from me and my body feels less mutilated, lighter without the weight of another hundred-ten pounds of a male. But I'm still aching.

"And yerr time ta get back ta Naruki fer lessons is runnin' out," Kuro adds, as if he'd never been interrupted.

"What the hell was that?" I hiss.

"Hm?" Kuro raises his eyebrows and appears slightly surprised. "Oh, ya mean tha'?"

"Yes, _that_," I say, gesturing wildly between myself, my shadow, and Kuro with a circling motion.

"Basically, my soul and yer soul were crowded inta one mind," he explains. "We shared one form, with tha dangerous possibilities of soul entrapment, physical altercations, and or death."

I gape at him. "And you did that without telling me _beforehand_?!" I screech. Kuro winces.

"I've done it before," he defends himself. "Nothing's ever happened! Well, at least, that's killed someone!"

I can't help myself. I slap him, and _relish_ the astonished expression it draws from the grayscale copy. "You're an insane motherfucker who should be in an asylum. Or whatever the heck we have in Leverayx."

"Mad houses," Kuro supplies. "Er somethin'. Torture labs?"

"Same difference," I sigh. Bite my bottom lip. "Do they really miss me?"

Kuro nods, eyes dulling. "A lot. Even Ruki-chan, though she would chop my balls off and feed it ta Aya's hellhound if she knew I told ya."

I chuckle half-heartedly. "Yeah, that sounds about right."

My copy sits down on the wooden porch by my feet so he looks up at me. "How 'bout we make a deal, Ake?"

I raise a brow. "Like?"

"You come back to home for a bit, a month or two maybe, and we'll leave ya alone. For a while." He says it nonchalantly, but I can see the desperate, almost panicked, swirling in his onyx eyes. Which, I also notice, are the same color as Mori's.

I hesitate. Mori and I are here now. I've done nothing at all, but I've feel like I've gone through a lot to get to him. "Give me two weeks. If I'm still sick by then, I'll come back. If not, I'm staying, and you can't do anything about it."

Kuro sighs heavily, edgy with anxiousness and irritation, and mutters something in Xia-Nym. I can pick out a few words like 'black cat', 'the doll would know', 'immortal', and something that I think was either 'toaster waffle' or 'half a heart'. With spit-fire paced Xia-Nym and my limited immediate knowledge, it's hard to tell.

"Fine," he growls. "But some things will happen if you don't come back. Don't say I didn't warn you."

In two-point-three seconds, I'm alone again, with a feeling of frustration at Kuro's bipolar attitudes(which I have a feeling I've experienced before), second thoughts about staying as well as leaving, and a suddenly vexing craving for waffles.

* * *

><p><em>In another realm...<em>

_3rd POV_

* * *

><p>Several dozen similarly faced figures either jerk around with their steps or pass completely through each other, objects, and walls, racing to various rooms of a gothic mansion. Oddly colored animals freely roam the property: blue-furred ferrets scrambling at each other in a sort of game akin to tag; black cats with red eyes and white canines with blue eyes howling and growling at each other in some kind of war of words with something that look like smirks; drowsy purple porcupines snuggled into empty spaces of bookshelves and corners; dragons of every shade and shape curled around anywhere they desired; a couple giant scorpions with barbed tails like curved blades ambling around the stone courtyard.<p>

In the attic, sitting on her legs on a bench by the window, sits a girl. She looks like the rest, but she's the only one with magenta eyes and inky hair. Only one eye shows, as the other is covered by sidebangs, and its pupil is but a pinpoint, her iris colored with thin rings of various shades of pinks and reds that day. The iris itself changes constantly, sometimes shaded like a sunset, sometimes pigmented in unique designs upon the base neutral red coat.

The girl sketches a boy, a few years older than her, or, at least, he appears to be. The artist's age is unknown. Her impish smirks, creamy skin, and flexible voice give the impression she's quite youthful, but her soulful eyes and speaking habits tell that she's either engrossed in more formally written literature or she's not as young as she appears.

The scratch of her pencil stops, and her eyes flick up to the stare out blankly through the window at the ever full moon, colored vermillion, through black, dead trees.

"What is it, Bashful?" the dark-haired girl sighs. The brunette behind her, in her red and white robes, fiddles with the hem of her sleeve.

"Ah, I-Ink Keeper, it a-ap-appears that-that your brother - " The artist snaps the mechanical pencil in her fist, suddenly attentive as she whips around. A piece of plastic plinks against the window.

"Cease your bumbling, girl!" she snaps. "What is it of my slumbering brother? Has his spirit awakened?"

"S-somewhat!" Bashful squeaks, hiding the lower half of her face with her long sleeves.

"She means," drawls a calm voice from under the desk by the window, "Your brother's spirit's been aware it has a slightly stable vessel, but his _soul_ is not."

"Dormant," the artist, who's dressed in a black hooded cloak held together by a ruby, murmurs in agreement. "Thank you, Serenity."

Serenity nods. "Any time, Mistress."

Another figure, this one in grayscale yet a complete, full detail copy of the artist, drops down from the ceiling. Her skin is still giving off a few wisps of steam from her teleportation.

The artist raises her eyebrows acknowledgingly. "Yes, Likeness?"

Likeness pulls a piece of parchment rolled into a scroll out from her cloak and holds it out. Around it is a shiny red, gold-trim satin ribbon. "A message from the secretary of the Leverayx Kingdom," she says.

The artist nods. "Read," she commands.

Likeness unscrolls the paper and holds the top and bottom to keep it from rolling up again. "'To the true Princess of Leverayx, the Empress of the Dolls, your presence is requested back at the palace before or by the first day of the eleventh month.'" Likeness scans the rest of it. "And... That's all that is written."

The artist's brows furrow. "How peculiar. They're hiding something from me." In the swish of a cloak and a creak of wood, she stands by her closet, staring at its opened contents. She snaps her fingers, a sound loud and clear that sent a wave of dry heat to the whole property, and instantly her duplicates are crowded into the room one way or another.

She turns to them. "My dear transcripts, I am putting forth leave for my eldest brother's kingdom. I am taking along Likeness and Shifter" - Shifter, a constantly pokerfaced white-clad copy, nods in acknowledgement - "so I am leaving the mansion and all its values in the rest of your care."

Protest begins to arise, so the artist snaps her fingers again. This time, a humid gust of air swept through them, quieting their cries.

"There will be no ruckus," the artist sighs. Behind her, articles of clothing and other miscellaneous items float out and into a magic, bottomless shiny-leather satchel. "I expect you to all behave and attend to your chores accordingly. I have no solid idea when I'll return, but you mustn't boisterously, as I see all in this house." She purses her lips, gazes over her endless sea of 'sisters'. Nods.

"Alright then. We three shall be leaving tonight." Another snap of her fingers, and the scent of dewy grass fills the air. "You're dismissed."

* * *

><p>Ryu's POV<p>

* * *

><p>I curl up into a fetal position. I'm on the porch again, shivering slightly as the cool winds blow over my thin t-shirt and cargo shorts. Midnight's brought out its stars, hundreds twinkling in the country skies.<p>

Kuro is suppose to return tonight. I already told Mori (who by now is asleep)that I'd be leaving for a while, a month or two at most, and that if he even dared to try and stop him, we're over. It seems like a big deal to Kuro, so I'm guessing I should make as big a deal out of it as he is.

"Were ya waitin' long, Ake?"

I look up at his shadowy form. He's wearing something of a trench coat(that looks like it's been hacked at with a pair of dull scissors), a ripped pair of jeans, and just as barefoot as I am.

"Not r-really." I can't help the small chatter that my words filter through; I've never been all that good with cool weather.

Kuro 'tsk's. "Uh-huh. Sure." He glances at the few bags I have set on the porch steps. "Ready to go?"

I nod fervently, for two reasons. One, because I can barely see Kuro's face so I'm assuming it's difficult to see even just movement out here, and two, because MY FACE IS FREEZING.

He snatches me up none too gently, grabbing my hand and yanking me up. I fly into his chest and almost knock him over, extracting a grunt. "Uh," I poke at his shoulder, "How are we getting to, um..."

"The mansion?" Kuro supplies.

"Yeah, sure, there."

Kuro grabs two bags and I take the last one. "You'll see. Hang on tight to my sleeve."

I grip his bicep, but frown. "Why do I have to - "

And then the world goes all swirly, transforming into a view of not a mansion but a castle peaking over rolling hills. Everything is pigmented in blacks and grays and flickering lights in the darkness. I feel nauseous.

I almost gag, my vision still dizzy. I'm still gripping onto Kuro's sleeve. "NEVER... do that... AGAIN."

"Hm? Oh. Yeah, I shoulda warned ya before hand that it might make ya dizzy. Sorry." I want to smack the carbon copy; he's not even _trying _to sound sorry.

I grimace and grab at the sides of my head, pressing down on the temples. "Where... Where _are_ we?"

Kuro makes a grand gesture to, well, everything. He breathes in deeply, closing his eyes and taking in the smell of wildflowers and nectar. When he speaks, that almost Southern Californian accent is gone, and his Leveran lilt is more prominent. He sounds so happy.

"Leverayx. The _capital_ captial city of Femmirea, in the world of Hivette."

Kuro turns to me with a relieved, free grin. "Home."

* * *

><p>As soon as we step foot in town, children begin screaming, gleefully pointing at Kuro and me. A little girl rushes to our sides, presenting me with a bouquet of black roses.<p>

A minute smile tugs at my lips. "_Nelka._" The word rolls off my tongue as I thank her. She squeals and runs back to her mother.

Kuro grins and nudges me with his shoulder, despite the fact he's an inch or two taller than me. "Ah? _Ieo mo lauka tehami asaun ouy_?(Not that hard, is it?)"

"_Hatchu tometa waakii psuo,_(Not as hard as thought)" I tell him, "_Donna xi bua_.(I still have learn.)"

Kuro chuckles at my slightly broken Xia-Nym and reverts into Japanese. "Come. The castle's magnificent and there are many family members to meet. Not to mention you'll have to prove that you're heir to the throne."

I frown, finger stroking thoughtfully over a rose petal. "Why?"

My grayscale snorts. "You've been gone for so long – a thousand years, yes? - so, even though Ayano was able to hold the royal title for a while, now that you've been awakened, there's going to be conflict, I'm sure."

I bite the inside of my cheek. "Mm. And how, exactly, am I proving my place?"

Kuro lets out a bark of laughter, drawing the attention of more villagers. "Fire." He runs ahead of me, calling out to old friends, while I'm left to sputter and chase after him.

"Wait! What do you mean, dammit?!"

* * *

><p>When we arrive at the castle, we're greeted by more women, children, soldiers. Ayano and Naruki are there, too, with larger versions of their wolf and serpent.<p>

Ayano struts up to me, looking elegant and gorgeous in a one-shouldered navy dress, decorative feathers stuck to the sides of her cerulean eyes. She kisses my cheek. "Welcome, back, brother dear."

Naruki, in a green archer's vest that sparkles even in the semi-darkness with silver trim and a deer hide skirt over leather tights, smirks. "There's more inside, baka. Get in."

Kuro pats my back. "And someone should be here to see you soon."

"More family?" I say hopefully. Ayano and Naruki nod.

"More family."

* * *

><p>Meanwhile...<p>

3rd POV

* * *

><p>Dark eyes stared up into the starry sky of dawn as the sun was just barely showing over the mountains. "Did I do something wrong, Mitskuni?"<p>

Hani frowned. "Of course not, Takashi. You couldn't have."

Mori sighed and closed his eyes. "I hope not."

Even though they were in the middle of nowhere, the blonde's phone vibrated in his shorts pocket. Hani slipped it out and tapped the touch screen. "Hello?" Some murmuring and lip-biting later, Hani put the device away and turned to the taller of them.

Mori opened his eyes and sat up from his place on the porch, looking expectantly at his cousin.

"There's... trouble. The Leverayns have recovered their ruler, and are in full power."

The raven-haired boy's brow furrowed. "Meaning?"

His cousin, looking very upset, fiddled with a bunny charm bracelet around his wrist. "While they're distracted, prepare for war."

* * *

><p><em>... Well. This was trash. I hoped you liked this worthlessness : I have to make major changes to old chapters of LMS so... Even though I'll be posting a new chapter hopefully this week or next week, prepare for storyline changes from back chapters and... This is going to be very stressful._

_Ta._

_~Kurami~_


End file.
